SPOONBILLS. 319 



Eastern Europe and India, this bird is found breeding in colonies comprising 

 thousands of individuals ; the nests being generally placed in low bushes. 



The last genus we have space to mention is exclusively American, and 

 comprises the beautiful scarlet ibis {GvMra rubra), ranging from Northern South 

 America to Central America and the West Indies ; and the white ibis {G. alba), 

 which is South American. While agreeing with the preceding in having the front 

 of the metatarsus covered with large scales, they differ in that the whole front 

 of the head is naked in the adult. Both have the tips of the wings blackish ; 

 the rest of the plumage being scarlet in the one, and black in the other. 



While the glossy ibis appears never to have been anything 

 more than a casual visitor to England, there is good evidence to 

 show that the beautiful bird known as the white spoonbill (Platalea leucolodia), 

 nested in Suffolk and Sussex some three centuries ago, although now it is but 

 rarely seen in Britain. The genus to which the spoonbill pertains represents 

 a subfamily distinguished from the ibises by the beak being very broad and 

 depressed, widening out at the tip into a spatulate expansion, and except at the 

 extrepaity being almost straight. Like the storks, spoonbills have no true organ 

 of voice ; but they differ from the members of the former group in having the 

 lower end of the windpipe folded in a figure of eight. Their tongues are short 

 like those of the storks, but blunted at the end. Spoonbills, of which there are 

 several species, have a cosmopolitan distribution, although they are not found in 

 Malaysia and Oceania. In the common species, which attains a length of about 32 

 inches, the whole plumage of the adult, inclusive of the crest at the back of the 

 head, is white, with the exception of a band of buff feathers on the front of the 

 lower part of the neck, and a streak of the same tint up each side of the same. 

 The roots of some of the feathers of the back also display a rosy tinge. With the 

 exception of the extremity of its rounded portion, when it is yellow, the beak is 

 black, as are also the legs and feet ; while the iris is bright red, and a patch of 

 naked skin on the throat is yellow. Young birds have no crests, and the shafts 

 and tips of the primary quills black. The spoonbill ranges over the greater part 

 of Europe except the extreme north, while eastwards it extends across Southern 

 Siberia to Amurland and the north of China ; its southern range including India 

 and North Africa. In Japan it is replaced by the greater spoonbill (P. major), 

 and this country is also the habitat of the lesser spoonbill (P. minor). 



The spoonbill frequents either marshes, lakes, or sandbanks in rivers, where 

 it may be met with in small parties or large flocks. It feeds in shallow water, in 

 which it dabbles with its broad beak in search of insects, crustaceans, molluscs, 

 frogs, and small fish. It breeds in numbers in a marsh near Amsterdam, which is, 

 however, being drained; and there are numerous nesting-places in India. In 

 Holland the nests are situated on the mud among reeds, and are raised to a 

 height of from twelve to eighteen inches, being composed of reeds and mud, and 

 tapering from base to summit, upon which is a slight depression for the 

 white eggs, — usually four in number. The eggs are laid at intervals of several 

 days and incubated at once. In colour the eggs are dull white, with reddish 

 brown streaks and spots. In India and Ceylon the spoonbill nests in tall trees, 

 the pipal and the tamarind being favourites. 



