164 The Stork-like Birds 



reaching to about the end of the tail, which is short, even, and composed of twelve 

 broad, rounded feathers. The plumage (except in Ajaja ajaja) is white through- 

 out, often with a beautiful rosy or crimson tinge, and during the breeding season 

 several of the species, are ornamented with crests, or bunches of plumes on the 

 breast or fore neck. 



Roseate Spoon-bill. The Spoon-bills are nearly cosmopolitan in distribu- 

 tion, and are divided into three genera and about six species, of which the Roseate 

 Spoon-bill (Ajaja ajaja} is the only American representative. It is a handsome 

 bird about thirty-two inches long, and is distinguished from the Old World forms 

 by having the head and throat bare. The neck and upper back are white, with 

 the rest of the plumage pink, becoming carmine on the lesser wing-coverts and 

 upper and under tail-coverts; it is without crest or ornamental plumes. In the 

 immature bird the head and throat are feathered and the plumage is more inclined 

 to pink. The Roseate Spoon-bill is found throughout tropical and subtropical 

 America, north to the Gulf States, having been formerly abundant in Florida, 

 but the persecutions of plume hunters have so nearly exterminated it that during 

 four winters recently spent in various parts of the state, Mr. Chapman did not 

 observe a single specimen. It is, however, still to be found in comparative abun- 

 dance on the Texas coast. They frequent the muddy or marshy borders of 

 estuaries, mouths of rivers, and the salt-water bayous, having the general habits 

 of Herons, "but feeding by immersing the bill and swinging it from side to side 

 in their search for food." The Spoon-bills are gregarious at all seasons, but espe- 

 cially so during the nesting period, when they congregate in vast numbers, 

 returning season after season to the same locality. The nest is a platform of 

 sticks placed in bushes or low trees, and the eggs are three to five in number, white, 

 spotted and blotched with various shades of olive-brown. They average about 

 two and one half by one and three quarters inches. 



The White Spoon-bill ( Platalea leucorodid] is a slightly larger bird than the 

 American species, and, with the exception of a band of cinnamon-buff on the 

 fore neck, is pure white throughout, with a large nuchal crest of drooping, pointed 

 plumes. It is found throughout central and southern Europe, thence east to 

 central Asia and China, and south to northern Africa and India. It is said to 

 breed among reeds in marshes after the manner of certain Cormorants. The 

 other species of the genus are the Black-billed Spoon-bill (P. regfu) of Australia 

 and the Moluccas, the African Spoon-bill (P. alba) of tropical Africa and Mada- 

 gascar, and the Lesser Spoon-bill (P. minor} of Japan and China. 



The Yellow-legged Spoon-bill (Plalibis flavipes) is confined to Australia, and 

 is a large bird, mainly white above and below, but with the fore neck straw-colored, 

 and the forehead, upper throat, and bill yellow. 



