86 NESTS AND EGGS OE 



having long legs and neck, the former of a lake-red color. The bill is 

 unique in shape, being abruptly bent in the middle, so that when 

 feeding the upper surface faces the ground. The plumage is scarlet 

 throughout, except the primaries and secondaries, which are black. 

 The stature of the bird is nearly five feet, and it weighs in the flesh six 

 or eight pounds. The nest of the Flamingo is described as a mass of 

 earth, sticks and other material scooped up from the immediate vicinity 

 to the height of several feet and hollow at the top. On this the birds 

 sit with their legs doubled under them. The old story of the Flamingo 

 bestriding its nest in an ungainly attitude while incubating is an 

 absurd fiction. The eggs are one or two in number, elongate-ovate in 

 shape, with a thick shell, roughened, with a white flakey substance, 

 but bluish when this is scraped off. It requires thirty-two days for the 

 eggs to hatch. Size 3.57x3.20, with considerable variation. 



183. Ajaja ajaja (Linn.) [505.] 



Roseate Spoonbill. 



Hab. Southern United States and southward into Southern South America. 



The Rosy Spoonbill, of so handsome plumage and singular form, 

 is distributed throughout South and Central America, Mexico, and in 

 all favorable localities of the Gulf region of the United States. In 

 Florida it was formerly abundant, but its numbers have greatly dimin- 

 ished by the constant persecution of the 'plume hunters.' Rare as far 

 north as the Carolinas. Marshy or muddy borders of estuaries, the 

 mouths of rivers, shrubby islands of tropical seas, or some dense marsh, 

 are the favorite breeding resorts. 



Mr. R. E. Rachford visited a small colony of these birds in South- 

 western Louisiana, June 2, 1886. The birds were found nesting in a 

 clump of cypress trees in a low marshy place fully twenty miles from 

 habitation. Here also nested the Snowy, L,ouisiana and Little Blue 

 Herons, and the Snake Bird. 



The nests of the Spoonbills were placed from eight to eighteen 

 feet from the ground, and the usual number of eggs found in the nests 

 was three or four ; although from one nest seven eggs were taken, and 

 five or six from several others. The nests were platforms of sticks, 

 and for the most part were built close to the trunks of the trees ; they 

 were usually more massive than the Herons' nests. 



The general shape of the eggs is ovate ; and their color is white, 

 or buffy-white, blotched, spotted and stained with various shades of 

 brown ; sometimes a pure white egg is found in a nest with spotted or 

 marked examples. Mr. Norris has a beautifully marked set of three 

 eggs collected by Mr. Rachford, which, if it were not for their elon- 



