The Roseate Spoon-bill 



sight at 25 feet. The birds got into most ungainly, graceful postures, — 

 a crossed leg, an open beak, or a lifted wing; and as often as they broke 

 the peace, I sprung the shutter. Finally, alas, I forced myself forward. 

 Five steps it was to be; and at the fifth step, as I started to lift my head, 

 there was a sudden soft brush of wings. I had passed the limit of for- 

 bearance, and my long-suffering hosts had fled — fled this time in high 

 dudgeon, for they rose and rose till at the height of half a mile they 

 passed from sight seaward. But oh, it was heavenly while it lasted !" 



No. 392 



Roseate Spoon-bill 



A. 0. U. No. 183. Ajaja ajaja (Linna;us). 



Synonym. — Flamingo (name based on rosy plumage and entirely erroneous). 



Description. — Adult: General color rosy red, paling to white on upper back 

 and breast, definitely white on neck, intensifying to carmine on lower fore-neck, upper 

 and under tail-coverts and lesser wing-coverts; shafts of wing-quills and rectrices 

 carmine; patch on side of breast and webbing of tail dingy yellow. Head bare, the 

 skin orange-yellow, greenish, and black; the bill likewise highly variegated; feet and 

 legs lake red, the claws dusky; irides carmine. Immature birds have the head chiefly 

 white-feathered and the body-plumage, basically white, is increasingly flushed with 

 rosy with advancing age; border of wing extensively dusky, this color persisting last 

 on tips of primaries. Length of male up to 889 (35.00); wing 400 (15.75); tail 120.6 

 (4.75); bill 177.8 (7.00) or less, its spoon 57.15 (2.25) across; tarsus 107.95 (4- 2 5)- 

 Female smaller — length up to 762 (30.00). 



Recognition Marks. — Eagle size; rosy plumage, and beak broadly flattened 

 at tip distinctive. 



Nesting. — Does not breed in California. Nest: A frail platform of sticks, 

 placed at moderate heights in bush or tree. Eggs: 3 or 4; elongate ovate or elliptical 

 ovate; dull white or pale greenish, spotted and blotched with tawny olive or dresden 

 brown, or washed and smeared with cream-buff. Av. size 68.85 x 4445 ( 2 -75 x l -75)- 

 Season: May 15-June 15. 



General Range. — Warm temperate North America and South America. Found 

 from the Gulf States south to Patagonia; casually (or formerly) north to Pennsylvania, 

 southern Indiana, Wisconsin, Kansas, Colorado, and California. 



Occurrence in California. — [No specimens extant, but status based on credit- 

 able sight records.] A summer visitor wandering from the South at the close of the 

 breeding season. Seen by Dr. Gambel on the coast as far as San Francisco in the 

 summer of 1849. Seen by R. B. Herron near San Bernardino, June 20, 1903, and by 

 H. E. Wilder at Riverside in 1902 (Stephens). 



Authorities. — Gambel (Platea mexicana), Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ser. 2, 

 i., 1849, p. 222 (Calif.); Stephens, Condor, vol. vi., 1904, p. 139 (San Bernardino and 

 Riverside) ; Grinnell, Bryant, and Storer, Game Birds Calif., 1918, p. 262. 



1932 



