AMERICAN AVOSET. 539 
have endeavored faithfully to delineate the figure of this /«nerican 
species, and may, perhaps, resume the subject in some future part of 
the present work. 
The Roseate Spoon-Bill, now before us, measured two feet six inches 
in length, and near four feet in extent ; the bill was six inches anda 
half long from the corner of the mouth, seven from its upper base, 
two inches over at its greatest width, and three quarters of an inch 
where narrowest; of a black color for half its length, and covered 
with hard, scaly protuberances, like the edges of oyster shells ; these 
are of a whitish tint, stained with red; the nostrils are oblong, and 
placed in the centre of the upper mandible; from the lower end of 
each there runs a deep groove along each side of the mandible, and 
about a quarter of an inch from its edge; whole crown and chin, bare 
of plumage, and covered with a greenish skin; that below the under 
mandible, dilatable like those of the genus Pelicanus ; space round 
the eye, orange; irides, blood red; cheeks and hind head, a bare, 
black skin; neck, long, covered with short, white feathers, some of 
which, on the upper part of the neck, are tipped with crimson; breast, 
white, the sides of which are tinged with a brown, burnt color; from 
the upper part of the breast proceeds a long tuft of fine, hair-like plu- 
mage, of a pale rose color; back, white, slightly tinged with brown- 
ish; wings, a pale wild rose color, the shafts lake; the shoulders of 
the wings are covered with long, hairy plumage, of a deep and splen- 
did carmine; upper and lower tail-coverts, the same rich red; belly, 
rosy ; rump, paler; tail, equal atthe end, consisting of twelve feath- 
ers of a bright brownish orange, the shafts reddish; legs and naked 
part of the thighs, dark dirty red; feet, half webbed ; toes, very long, 
particularly the hind one. The upper part of the neck had the plu- 
mage partly worn away, as if occasioned by resting it on the back, 
in the manner of the Ibis. The skin on the crown is a little wrinkled; 
the inside of the wing a much richer red than the outer. 
AMERICAN AVOSET.—RECURVIROSTRA AMERICANA. — 
Fic. 253. 
Arct. Zool. No. 421. — Lath. Syn. iii. p. 295, No. 2.— Peale’s Museum, No. 4250. 
RECURVIROSTRA AMERICANA, — Linnxvus.* 
Avocette isabelle, Recurvirostra Americana, Temm. Man. d’Orn. ii. p. 594.— 
Recurvirostra Americana, Bonap. Synop. p. 345. 
Tis species, from its perpetual clamor and flippancy. of tongue, is 
called, by the inhabitants of Cape May, the Lawyer; the comparison, 
however, reaches no farther ; for our Lawyer is simple, timid, and per- 
fectly inoffensive. : 
migratory; their flesh reported to savor of that of a Goose; the young are reck- 
oned good food, eo 
* This curious genus contains four known species; perhaps, ere long, another 
may be made out. They nearly resemble each other, and all possess the turned- 
