PLATALEiE. 



231 



217. PLATALEA MINOR. 

 (SWINHOE'S BLACK-FACED SPOONBILL.) 



Platalea minor, Temminck and Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, Aves, p. 120 (1847). 



Swinhoe'a Black-faced Spoonbill is rather smaller than the Common 

 Spoonbill ; the naked skin on the face is black ; and the feathering 

 scarcely extends in front of the eyes either on the forehead or on the 

 sides of the head. The bare space on the throat is, on the other 

 hand, much less extensive than in the European species. 



Figures : Temminck and Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, Aves, pi. 76 

 (bare skin on face coloured wrong) . 



The type of Swinhoe's Black-faced Spoonbill has a black face, 

 though it is neither described nor figured as such in the ' Fauna 

 Japonica/ In all probability it was procured at Nagasaki, whence 

 there is an example in the Christiania Museum, collected by Mr. 

 Petersen in December (Stejneger, Proc. United States Nat. Mus. 



Side of head and throat of Platalea minor. % natural size. 



1887, p. 283). There is also a head in the collection of Canon Tris- 

 tram at Durham, obtained by Lieutenant Gunn on North Goto 

 Island, west of Nagasaki (Ogilvie-Grant, Ibis, 1889, p. 57). 



So far as is known, Swinhoe's Black -faced Spoonbill is peculiar to 

 Formosa and the extreme south of Japan. It is very nearly allied to 

 Platalea melanorhyncha from Australia and Timor, which combines 

 the black face of P. minor with the naked throat of P. leucorodia. 



