104 ALTRICIAL GRALLATORES — HERODIONES. 



" Other facts confirm me in that opinion. A common Spoonbill was kept tame by a friend of 

 mine seven years, at the end of wliich lime it died witliont having acquired any of the distin- 

 guishing marks of P. ajaja. 



" I have dissected three examples of the latter species, and observed in them the curiously 

 formed trachea recentlj' described by Mr. Garrod.^ I have shot perhaps a hundred specimens 

 of the common bird, for they are extremely abundant with us. Of these I have opened about 

 thirty, but in none of them did I find this form of trachea. I am therefore convinced that 

 we have two distinct species of Rose-colored S]iooubill, inhabiting difl'erent portions of the 

 continent." 



The Roseate Spoonbill has a wide di.stribution, occurring in favorable localities 

 throughout South America, Central America, Mexico, and the Gulf Kegiou of the 

 United States, from Florida to the Mexican departments. Stragglers have been ob- 

 served even as far south as the Falkland Islands. Captain C. C. Abbott states that 

 a specimen of the Spoonbill was shot in a pond near Kidney €ove, in the Falkland 

 Islands, in July, 1860; and he also found the remains of another in AMialebone Bay, 

 in the same year. Dr. Burmeister speaks of this species as everywhere present in 

 the La Plata Region, throughout nearly the whole of which it was found frequenting 

 the reeds, on the shores of streams and lagoons. He always found it solitary, and 

 never noticed it in flocks. Mr. C. Barrington Brown mentions finding it common in 

 the inlets of the Cotinga River, in British Guiana. Mr. Salvin notices the pro- 

 curing of a single individual of this species in Guatemala. It had been shot by an 

 Indian on the borders of Lake Duenas. Mr. Salviu afterward mentions having met 

 with it occasionally on the Pacific coast of Guatemala, where, not unfrequeutly, a 

 small flock would fly across the creek, seldom within shot, but often near enough 

 to show their brilliant colors. This species has not, that I am aware, been recorded 

 on the Pacific coast north of Mazatlan ; Init it is found in several of the West India 

 Islands, and according to Dr. Gundlach it breeds in Culxi. It was not met with by 

 Mr. Gosse in Jamaica, but is given by Mr. Richard Hill as a resident of that island ; 

 Mr. March, however, regards it as being of very rare occurrence there. It is given 

 Ijy Lcotaud as an occasional visitant to Trinidad, the birds seen there being always 

 in their immature plumage. Tliese visitants usually arrive about the end of June, 

 and leave in the month of October. It is abundant in Southwestern Texas and 

 along the Gulf coast of Mexico. JMr. Dresser speaks of it as common near Mata- 

 moras during the summer, and he never visited the lagoon near the tow'n without 

 seeing several. On his journey to San Antonio, in September, he saw a number at 

 different places near the coast ; and in June, 1804, he saw two or three on Galveston 

 Island, where it is known under the name of " Flamingo." He was informed that, 

 in former years, it had been known to breed on the island, but that it does so no 

 longer, having been too much disturbed. He received a specimen in a collection 

 from Fort Stockton, where it was obtained on the 3d of August. Occasionally this 

 species wanders up the creeks and rivers flowing into the Gulf, and a specimen was 

 taken as high up on the Mississippi as Natchez. This was the locality of "Wilson's 

 type of the species. That author, however, regarded this bird as rare in Florida, 

 while Nuttall thought it common in Jamaica; both these statements have, however, 

 proved to be incorrect. Nuttall records a straggler as having Ijeen taken on the 

 banks of the Delaware River ; but there is no recent record of such an occurrence. 



According to Dr. Berlandier (unpublished MSS.), the Roseate Spoonbill inhabits 

 almost all the eastern coast of Mexico. It is in winter quite common about the 

 lakes of Tampico, Tamiagua, the shores of Panonco, etc., advancing in the summer 



1 r. Z. S. 1S7.S p. 297. 



