TANTALUS. — PLATALEA. 189 



The Wood-Ibis inhabits the Gulf States of North America and Florida, as well as 

 some of the Central United States. It is resident in Mexico, where Sumichrast gives 

 its habitat as the hot and temperate parts of both coasts, and Grayson says that it is 

 abundant at Mazatlan at all seasons. We found the " Alcatraz," as it is called, not 

 uncommon about the rivers in the forests of the Pacific coast of Guatemala, and 

 Mr. Richmond states that it was plentiful in a marsh on the Rio Escondido 20 in 

 Nicaragua. It breeds in Cuba, and also in many parts of South America. 



In habits T. loculator resembles many of the Herons and Storks, but it is more 

 gregarious, assembling in large flocks during the spring and circling in the air after 

 the manner of Turkey Vultures, and nesting in communities numbering (according to 

 the late Dr. Bryant) at least a thousand. The food consists of crustaceans, fish, small 

 rodents, insects, &c. 



The nests are large, composed of small twigs lined with moss ; they are placed on 

 trees, often at such a height as to be quite inaccessible. The eggs are white, generally 

 three in number. 



Fam. FLATALEID^. 



The Spoonbills resemble the Herons in having a desmognathous palate, but diflfer 

 from them, as also from the Steganopodes, in their schizorhinal nostrils. Mr. Ridgway, 

 in his paper on American Herodiones, distinguishes the Spoonbills and Ibises from the 

 Herons by the following characters : — Sides of the maxilla with a deep and narrow 

 groove, extending uninterruptedly from the nasal fossae to the extreme tip of the bill ; 

 angle of the mandible produced and decurved. 



The peculiar flat bill, narrow in the middle and then widening out into a broad 

 spatula, is sufficient to distinguish the Plataleidse from the Ibises. 



PLATALEA. 



Platalea, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 231 (1766). 



Ajaja (Reichenb.), Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxvi. p. 52 (1898). 



The characters given above for the family are the same as those of the genus,, of 

 which six species are known. Spoonbills are found throughout the temperate and 

 tropical portions of both hemispheres. Some naturalists recognize three genera, 

 separating the Australian Spoonbill from the typical forms on account of the want of 

 an occipital crest, and the development of ornamental plumes on the chest and inner 

 secondaries. The American bird diff'ers from its Old- World allies in having the head 

 bare, the auricular orifice being exposed, and the species has been separated, by some 

 ornithologists, as a distinct genus, Ajaja. It also has a remarkable trachea, unlike 

 that of any other known bird {of. Garrod, P. Z. S. 1875, p. 300). 



