ORDER HERODIONES. 



HERONS, IBISES, SPOONBILLS, ETC. 

 Suborder IBIDES. Spoonbills and Ibises. 



Family PLATALEID.E. Spoonbills. 



A peculiar family comprising half a dozen species and having rep- 

 resentatives in both the Old and New World. They resemble Ibises 

 in habits and structure, except the flattened bill curiously paddle- 

 shaped or spoon-shaped at the end, which is characteristic and from 

 which their name is derived. One species occurs in North America. 



Genus AJAIA Reichenbach. 



75. Ajaia ajaia (Linn.). 

 Roseate Spoonbill. 



Ajaja ajaja (Linn.), A. O. U. Check List, 1895, p. 67. 



Distr.: South Atlantic and Gulf states southward through South 

 America to Patagonia and Falkland Islands. 



Adult: Back and wings, a delicate rose white; under parts showing 

 rose color; bare skin of the head, greenish and yellow; bill, widened 

 at the tip, somewhat spoon-shaped but flat, tinted with greenish 

 and yellowish; legs, dull red. Very old birds have the lesser wing 

 coverts and upper tail coverts brilliant carmine red. 



The immature bird has general plumage pale pinkish white, with 

 no red on the lesser wing coverts. 



Length, 31; wing, 15; tarsus, 4.10; bill, 6.30. 



Although there are no recent records of the occurrence of the 

 Roseate Spoonbill in Illinois, it was apparently not uncommon fifty 

 years ago in the southern part of the state. 



Ridgway states he was informed that several specimens were 

 killed in the Mississippi bottoms near St. Louis, about 1859. Nelson 

 states that it "used to occur in the bottoms opposite St. Louis." 

 "It has been recorded in early days in Indiana." (Butler.) In A. C. 

 Barry's list (Wisconsin, 1854) he states that it was "found along the 

 Mississippi within the bounds of our state and occasionally about 



357 



