SPOON-BILLS. 



161 



feathered, except a stripe between the eye and the base of the bill. In that respect 

 they represent the opposite extreme to the sacred ibis. 



The name of the spoonbills explains itself, and it is hardly necessary to refer to 

 the accompanying illustration, for no one who ever saw any of these large and beauti- 

 ful birds with the singular beak mistook it for anything else. The Old World species 



FIG. 78. Platalea leucorodia, spoon-bill. 



(Plataka) are all nearly pure white, while the American spoonbill (Ajaja ajaja) is 

 light rose-colored, with brilliant carmine wing-coverts. In their general habits, as in 

 their structure, the spoonbills are only modified ibises. Like these they also fly with 

 outstretched necks, perch on trees, and also generally breed in trees. Messrs. Sclater 

 and Forbes have demonstrated that, in certain localities at least, the spoonbill of 

 Europe, P. leucorodia, breeds on the ground among the reed-beds. In 1877 they vis- 



VOL. IV. 11 



