538 ROSEATE SPOON-BILL. 
ROSEATE SPOON-BILL.—PLATALEA AJAJA.—Fic. 252. 
Arct. Zool. Na %38.—- Lath. Syn. iii. p. 16, No. 2.—La Spatule coleur de rose. 
Briss. ae vp. 3562, pl. 30.— Buf vii. 456, Pl. ent. 116. — Peale’s Museum, 
No. 3553. i 
PLATALEA AJATA, — Linn.xvs.* 
Platalea aja 1, Bonap. Synop. p. 346. 
Tuts stately and elegant bird inhabits the sea-shores of America, 
from Brazil to Georgia. It also appears to wander up the Mississippi 
sometimes in summer, the specimen from which Fig. 252 was. drawn 
having been sent me from the neighborhood. of Natchez, in excellent 
order ; for which favor I am indebted to the family of my late benevo- 
lent and scientific friend, William Dunbar, Esq., of that Territory. It 
is now deposited in Mr. Peale’s Museum. This species, however, is 
rarely seen to the northward of the Alatamaha River; and even along 
the Peninsula of Florida is a scarce bird. In Jamaica, several other 
of the West India Islands, Mexico, and Guiana, it is more common, 
but confines itself chiefly to the sea-shore and the mouths of rivers. 
Captain Henderson says, it is frequently seen at Honduras. It wades 
about in quest of shell fish, marine insects, small crabs, and fish. In 
pursuit of these, it occasionally swims and dives. 
There are few facts on record relatiye to this very singular bird. 
It is said that the young are of a blackish chestnut the first year; of 
the roseate color of the present the second year; and of a deep scar- 
let the third Having never been so fortunate as to meet with them 
in their native wilds, I regret my present inability to throw any further 
light on their history and nianners._ These, it is probable, may resem- 
ble, in many respects, those of the European species, the White Spoon- 
Bill, once so common in Holland. Too atone for this deficiency, I 
* This group, remarkable for the curious development of the bill, join a num- 
ber of characters in common with the Herons and Tantali. They live during the 
breeding season in communities, and feed in twilight; the food is fish and aquatic 
animals, and they are said to search in the mud with their bills in the manner of 
Ducks, where the soft and closely nervous. substance enables them to detect the 
smaller insects. To look at the bill in a stuffed or preserved state, it is hard and 
Cc 
horny, but when living it is remarkably tender, and has rather a fleshy and soft 
look and feel. The common British species is easily tamed, and, like most of ‘its 
nearer allies, eats voraciously ; fish will support them, and even porridge, with a 
little raw meat ; the gape is very wide, and stibstantes are swallowed in immediate 
succession, taken always crosswise, and then tossed over. The trachea in the 
male performs a single convolution in the sternum, The genus contains three or 
four species — that of Europe, found also in India ; a species from Africa very near 
P. ajaja, peculiar to America; and the Spatule huppée of Sonnerat, which Mons. 
Temminck thinks distinct. In all, the young do not attain full plumage till after 
the first moult. — Ep. : 
t+ LATHAM. . . 
t The European species breeds on trees by the sea side; lays three or four 
white eggs, powdered with a few pale red spots, and about the size of those of a 
Hen; are very noisy during breeding-time ; feed on fish, muscles, Sc, which, like 
the Bald Eagle, they frequently take from other birds, frightening them by clatter- 
ing their dill: they are also said to cat grass, weeds, and roots of reeds: they are 
a 
