50 ROSEATE SPOONBILL 



first year; of the roseate colour of the present the second year; 

 and of a deep scarlet the third. * 



Having never been so fortunate as to meet with them in their 

 native wilds, I regret my present inability to throw any farther 

 light on their history and manners. These, it is probable, may 

 resemble, in many respects, those of the European species, the 

 White Spoonbill, once so common in Holland.! To atone for 

 this deficiency, I have endeavoured faithfully to delineate the 

 figure of this American species, and may perhaps resume the 

 subject, in some future part of the present work. 



The Roseate Spoonbill, now before us, measured two feet 

 six inches in length, and near four feet in extent; the bill was 

 six inches and a half long, from the corner of the mouth, seven 

 from its upper base, two inches over at its greatest width, and 

 three quarters of an inch where narrowest; of a black colour for 

 half its length, and covered with hard scaly protuberances, like 

 the edges of oyster shells: these are of a whitish tint, stained 

 with red ; the nostrils are oblong, and placed in the centre of 

 the upper mandible; from the lower end of each nostril there 

 runs a deep groove along each side of the mandible, and about 

 a quarter of an inch from its edge; whole crown and chin bare 

 of plumage, and covered with a greenish skin: that below the 

 under mandible dilatable, as in the genus Pelicanus; space 

 round the eye orange; irides blood red; cheeks and hind-head 

 a bare black skin; neck long, covered with short white feathers, 

 some of which, on the upper part of the neck, are tipt with 

 crimson; breast white, the sides of which are tinged with a 

 brown burnt-colour; from the upper part of the breast proceeds 

 a long tuft of fine hair-like plumage, of a pale rose colour; back 



6 Latham. 



t The European species breeds on trees, by the sea-side; lays three or four 

 white eggs, powdered with a few pale red spots, and about the size of those 

 of a hen; are very noisy during breeding time; feed on fish, muscles, &c. which, 

 like the Bald Eagle, they frequently take from other birds, frightening them by 

 tlattering their bill; they are also said to eat grass, weeds, and roots of reeds: 

 they are migratory; their flesh reported to savour of that of a goose; the young are 

 reckoned good food. 



