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ROSEATE SPOONBILL. 



4 Platalea Ajaja, Linn. 

 PLATE CCCLXIL— Adult Male. 



This beautiful and singular bird, although a constant resident in the 

 southern extremities of the peninsula of Florida, seldom extends its journeys 

 in an eastern direction beyond the State of North Carolina. Indeed it is of 

 extremely rare occurrence there, and even in South Carolina, my friend 

 John Bachman informs me that he has observed only three individuals in 

 the course of twenty years. He once obtained a specimen in full plumage 

 about ten miles north of Charleston. It is rarely seen in the interior of the 

 country at any distance from the waters of the Atlantic, or those of the 

 Gulf of Mexico. A specimen sent to Wilson at Philadelphia from the 

 neighbourhood of the city of Natchez, in the State of Mississippi, appears to 

 have lost itself, as during my stay in that section of the country I never 

 heard of another; nor have I ever met with one of these birds farther up the 

 Mississippi than about thirty miles from its mouths. Although rather 

 abundant on some parts of the coast of Florida, I found it more so along the 

 Bay of Mexico, particularly in Galveston Bay in the Texas, where, as well 

 as on the Florida Keys, it breeds in flocks. The Spoonbills are so sensible 

 of cold, that those which spend the winter on the Keys, near Cape Sable in 

 Florida, rarely leave those parts for the neighbourhood of St. Augustine 

 before the first days of March. But after this you may find them along 

 most of the water courses running parallel to the coast, and distant about 

 half a mile or a mile from it. I saw none on any part of the St. John's 

 river; and from all the answers which I obtained to my various inquiries 

 respecting this bird, I feel confident that it never breeds in the interior of 

 the peninsula, nor is ever seen there in winter. 



The Roseate Spoonbill is found for the most part along the marshy and 

 muddy borders of estuaries, the mouths of rivers, ponds, or sea islands or 

 keys partially overgrown with bushes, and perhaps still more commonly 

 along the shores of those singular salt-water bayous so abundant within a 

 mile or so of the shores, where they can reside and breed in perfect security 

 in the midst of an abundance of food. It is more or less gregarious at all 

 seasons, and it is rare to meet with fewer than half a dozen together, unless 



