70 BIRDS OF ALABAMA 



its bill from about its feet. A single egg is laid in a depres- 

 sion on top. The young "are fed by regurgitation on the 

 partially digested juices of a small moUusk of the genus 

 Cerithium, which forms apparently the only food of the adult. 

 The note of the young is a shrill whistling, that of the adult a 

 goose-like honking."t 



SPOONBILLS: Family Plataleidae. 

 ROSEATE SPOONBILL: Ajaia ajaja (Linnaeus). 



State records. — The occurrence of roseate spoonbills in Ala- 

 bama is mentioned by Nuttall, who says of them : "They are 

 also occasionally met with on the river shores of the Alabama, 

 and in other parts of that State."* The only recent record is 

 furnished by Capt. W. M. Sprinkle, who states that he saw two 

 birds of this species killed on Dauphin Island about the year 

 1897. 



General habits. — The roseate spoonbill frequents the muddy 

 shores of shallow lagoons or ponds, chiefly near the sea coast. 

 It is gregarious at all seasons, flying in rather compact flocks 

 and nesting in bushes growing in shallow water. 



IBISES: Family Threskiornithidae.f 

 WHITE IBIS : Guara alba (Linnaeus) . 



State records. — The white ibis is apparently an accidental 

 visitor in southern Alabama. It is a common breeder in 

 western Florida (Chipley and Whitfield) and may have nested 

 occasionally on the Alabama coast. A. D. GoUott, of Bayou 

 Labatre, informs me that he has seen the species on Petit Bois 

 Island, and Capt. W. M. Sprinkle also states that it was in 

 former years an occasional visitor there. 



General habits. — This species breeds in colonies, placing its 

 nests in bushes or small trees. It feeds, generally in flocks, 

 about mud flats or marshes. The birds fly swiftly in close 

 ranks, alternately flapping and sailing, and often indulge in 

 graceful evolutions high in air. 



:tChapman, F. M.. Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America, p. 217, 1912. 

 'Nuttall, Thomas, Manual of ornithology, water birds, p. 80, 1834. 

 flbididae of the A. O. U. Check-list ; for change of name, see The Auk, vol. 37, p. 

 441, 1920. 



