

NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 107 



interesting notes concerning their nesting: He states that the birds inhabit the 

 shallow lagoons and bays having soft clayey bottoms. On the border of these the 

 nest is made by working the clay up into a mound which, in the first season is per- 

 haps not more than a foot high and about eight inches in diameter at the top and 

 fifteen inches at the base. If the birds are unmolested they will return to the same 

 nesting place from year to year, each season augmenting the nest by the addition of 

 mud on the top, leaving a slight depression for the eggs. Mr. Ingraham speaks of 

 visiting the breeding grounds where the birds had nested the previous year and their 

 mound-like nests were still standing. The birds nest in June. The number of eggs 

 to a clutch is usually two, sometimes only one and very rarely three. When three 

 are found in a nest it is generally believed that the third has been laid by another 

 female. According to Mr. Ingraham's observations the nests in our illustration must 

 be considered correct except in height. They are simply small mounds. The old 

 story of the Flamingo bestriding its nest in an ungainly attitude while incubating 

 is absurd fiction. The eggs are one or two in number, elongate-ovate in shape, with 

 a thick shell, roughened, with a white flakey substance, but bluish when this is 

 scraped off. It requires thirty-two days for the eggs to hatch. Size 3.57x2.20, with 

 considerable variation. 



183. BOSEATE SPOONBILL. Ajaja ajaja (Linn.) Geog. Dist. Southern 

 United States and southward into Southern America. Formerly north to Southern 

 Illinois. 



The Rosy Spoonbill, of so handsome plumage and singular form, is distributed 

 throughout South and Central America, Mexico, and in all favorable localities of the 

 Gulf region of the United States. In Florida it was formerly abundant, but its num- 

 bers have greatly diminished by the constant persecution of the "plume hunters." 

 Rare as far north as the Carolinas. Marshy or muddy borders of estuaries, the 

 mouths of rivers, shrubby islands of tropical seas, or some dense marsh, are the 

 favorite breeding resorts. Mr. R. E. Rachford visited a small colony of these birds 

 in Southwestern Louisiana, June 2, 1886. The birds were found nesting in a clump 

 of cypress trees in a low marshy place fully twenty miles from habitation. Here 

 also nested the Snow, Louisiana and Little Blue Herons, and the Snaive Bird. The 

 nests of the Spoonbills were placed from eight to eighteen feet from the ground, and 

 the usual number of eggs found in the nests was three or four; although from one 

 nest seven eggs were taken, and five or six from several others. The nests were 

 platforms of sticks, and for the most part were built close to the trunks of the trees; 

 they were usually more massive than the Herons' nests. The general shape of the 

 eggs is ovate; and their color is white, or buffy-white, blotched, spotted and stained 

 with various shades of brown; sometimes a pure white egg is found in a nest with 

 spotted or marked examples. They measure from 2.50x1.70 to 2.60x1.77. 



184. WHITE IBIS. Guara alba (Linn.) Geog. Dist. South Atlantic and Gulf 

 States southward to the West Indies and Northern South America; casually on the 

 Atlantic coast to Long Island; in the interior to the Lower Ohio Valley and Great 

 Salt Lake. 



The White Ibis or Spanish Curlew is distributed in summer throughout the 

 ' South Atlantic and Gulf States from the Carolinas southward, throughout Mexico, 

 Central America, and portions of Northern South America. It breeds in communi- 

 ties by thousands in the tangled marshes of the southern coast; fastening the nest 

 to broken down or upright living reeds; it is composed of reeds, compactly woven 



