THE ROSEATE SPOONBILL 



By FRANK M. CHAPMAN 



THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES 

 Educational Leaflet No. 74 



When Dr. Henry Bryant visited Pelican Island, in Indian River, 

 Florida, in 1858, he found not .only Brown Pelicans but also Roseate 

 Spoonbills nesting there. But even at that early date these beautiful 

 and interesting birds were prey for the plume-hunters, some of whom, 

 Dr. Bryant writes, were killing as many as sixty Spoonbills a day, and 

 sending their wings to St. Augustine to be sold as fans. 



From that time almost to the present day "Pink Curlews," as the 

 Floridan calls them, have been a mark for every man with a gun. Only 

 a remnant was left when the National Association of Audubon Societies 

 began to protest against the further wanton destruction of bird-life, and, 

 by the establishment of reservations, and a system of Q , , R . , 

 guarding them by wardens, attempted to do for Florida &avm 8 tne c 

 what that State had not enough foresight to do for itself. Unfortunately, 

 Florida is not alone in this neglect. 



By such precautions the Spoonbill and other birds have been saved 

 to delight future generations of nature-lovers. Warden Kroegel, o 

 Pelican Island, tells me that in June, 1913, he saw a flock of sixty on the 

 Mosquito Inlet Reservation ; and on the day I pen these lines word comes 

 from President Blackman, of the Florida Audubcn Society, that he had 

 seen fifty Spoonbills on Bird Island, on the Gulf Coast. So let us hope 

 that what I have to write here relates not to a species approaching 

 extinction, but to one which, under proper guardianship, is increasing, 

 and will continue to increase. 



The Roseate Spoonbill belongs to one of those families of birds which, 

 like the Ibises, Parrots, Trogons, and many others, are distributed 

 throughout the warmer parts of the earth. Thus there are European, 

 African, Asian, and Australian Spoonbills, all with 

 the singularly shaped bill to which they owe their Distribution 

 common name, but none pink like ours. This small 

 family contains only six members; and how they have become so widely 

 scattered geographically is a question no one has answered satisfactorily. 

 It is, however, known that at one time in the earth's history what are 

 now Arctic regions were very much warmer; and it is probable that at 

 that period' Spoonbills lived on the border of the Arctic Sea, which was 

 then bordered by a vegetation resembling that now found in our Southern 

 States. When, toward the close of the Tertiary Era, the climate gradually 

 grew colder, until finally the ice-cap of the Glacial Period formed all over 



