348 



THE ROSEATE SPOONBILL SPOTTED TATLER. 



THE ROSEATE SPOONBILL. 



The Red or American Spoonbill chiefly dwells within the tropical 

 r^ions f tne continent, being common in Jamaica, and other ot the 

 West India Islands, as well as in Mexico, Guiana, and Brazil. 



According to the relation of Captain Henderson, in his account of 

 Honduras, this species is more maritime in its habits than that of 

 Europe, as it wades about in quest of shell fish, marine insects fry 

 and small crabs ; 



SPOTTED TATLER. 



THE SPOTTED TATLER, OR PEET WEET. 



The Peet Weet, is one of the most familiar and common of all the 

 New England 

 marsh birds, arriv- 

 ing along our river 

 shores and low 

 meadows, about the 

 beginning of May, 

 from their mild or 

 tropical winter 

 quarters, in Mexico, 

 and probably the 

 adjoining islands 

 of the West Indies. 

 By the 20th of 

 April, Wilson ob- 

 served their arrival 

 on the shores of the 

 large rivers in the 

 State of Pennsylvania. They migrate and breed from the Middle 

 States, in all probability, to the confines of the St. Lawrence, or 

 further ; but were not seen by Dr. Richardson, or any of the Arctic 

 expeditions, in the remote boreal regions, or around Hudson's Bay, 

 as had been asserted by Ilutchinson. It is also an accidental visitor 

 in the old continent, being sometimes observed on the coasts of the 

 Baltic, and in Germany, but still more rarely in Great Britain. As 

 to residence, therefore, the Spotted Tatler may be considered an 

 exclusively American, and confined chiefly to the limits of the more 

 temperate parts of the Union. 



As soon as the Peet Weet arrives on the coasts, small roving flocka 

 ro seen, at various times of the day, coursing rapidly along the bor- 

 ders of our tide water streams, flying swift and rather low, in circuit- 

 ous sweeps along the meanders of the creek or river, and occasionally 

 crossing from side to side, in rather a sportive and cheerful mien, than 

 as the needy foragers they appear at the close of autumn. While 

 flying out in these wide circuits, agitated by superior feelings to those 

 of hunger and necessity, we hear the shores re-echo the shrill and 

 rapid whistle of 'weet, 'weet, 'weet, 'weet, and usually closing the nota, 



