AVES—AV OSET...SPOONBILL. 64] 
AMERICAN AVOSET. 
Tuis species, from its perpetual clamor and flippancy of tongue, is called 
by the inhabitants of Cape May, the lawyer. Wilson found these birds, as 
well as the long-legged avost, in the salt marshes of New Jersey on the 20th 
of May. They flew around the shallow pools, uttering the sharp note of 
click, click, alighting on the marsh, or in the water, fluttering their loose 
wings, and shaking their half-bent legs, as if ready to tumble over, keepmg 
up a continual yelping note. The nest was built among the thick tufts a 
grass, of sea-weed, dry grass, and twigs, and raised to the height of seve- 
ral inches. 
THE ROSEATE SPOONBILL2 

Tus stately and elegant bird inhabits the seashores of America from 
Brazil to Georgia. It also appears to wander up the Mississippi sometimes 

1 Recurvirostra Americana, LatH. 
2? Platalea ajaja, Lis. The genus Platalea has the bill very long, much flattened, dilat- 
ed towards the extremity, and rounded like a spoon or spatula ; upper mandible channeled 
and transversely sulcated at the base; nostrils approximated, sblong, open, bordered with 
a membrane; face and head wholly or partially naked ; legs long; the three anterior toes 
connected to the second joint by deeply cut membranes ; the hinder one long, and bearing 
on the ground. 
81 54* 
