23 The spoonbill comes into its own 



In the spring of 1940 I had shifted my base of operations to 

 Texas and found there that the spoonbill colony on the Second 

 Chain-of-Islands in San Antonio Bay offered much better oppor- 

 tunities for observation than the few pairs nesting in the tangled 

 mangrove thickets of Florida Bay. I discovered for the first time 

 that in the spoonbill it is the female who isolates herself in a tree 

 or bush that will later be the nest site. Her role is a relatively 

 passive one, which is in marked contrast to that of the male of this 

 species. She merely sits there, now and then reaching out to grasp 

 a twig or small branch in her bill and agitate it. The male spoon- 

 bill, on the other hand, demonstrates his "maleness" by moving 

 about with a great show of activity and purpose. When he sees an 

 unattached female occupying her pairing site he flies toward her, 

 bobbing his green and golden head and beating his resplendent 

 wings. She may repulse him at first, but if he is persistent and if 

 no other male dislodges him during these advances, he may shortly 

 find a perch beside her and together they may begin the touching 

 betrothal period of their kind. Of course, to accomplish these 

 things, both the male and ferhale spoonbill must have reached 

 breeding condition at a high level, as demonstrated by the color 

 and appearance of plumage and soft parts, and by the production 

 of the limited and generally improbable behavior that is required. 

 As in night herons or, indeed, as in all animals, man included 

 boy meets girl and by means of certain inherently established 

 signs and signals peculiar to each separate species, an understand- 

 ing is accomplished. Watching the courtship behavior of birds, 

 in which there is no intelligence remotely comparable to that of 

 the higher mammals such as man, we must confess our wonder 

 and admiration. Beside them we ourselves are often inept and 

 frequently confused, but I suppose that this is one of the many 

 penalties that we must pay for our superior intellect. 



One significant fact concerned with the survival of the spoon- 

 bill could have been uncovered only as a result of behavior studies. 

 From what I saw in Texas it was clear that their inherent ability 

 to gather in suitable habitats and reproduce their kind was in no 

 way impaired genetically. Though the elaborate courtship and its 

 logical follow-through are complicated enough, there is no im- 



