12 NORTH AMERICAN HERONS AND THEIR ALLIES. 



(McAtee). One visited Bermuda September 24, 1849 (Hurdis, 

 and the species has been recorded as a visitor to Jamaica (March), 

 Haiti (Bitter), Porto Eico (Gundlach), Guadeloupe, Antigua, 

 Anegada (Clark), Colombia (Masquera), and the Orinoco Eiver in 

 Venezuela (Burger). 



Roseate Spoonbill. Ajaia ajaja (Linnaeus). 



Range. — Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and central Mexico, south to 

 southern Patagonia; formerly north casually to South Carolina 

 and Indiana; accidental in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Kansas, Colo- 

 rado, and California. 



Breeding range. — The roseate spoonbill as a breeder in the United 

 States was confined to the extreme southern parts of Texas, Louisi- 

 ana, and Florida. It has been known to nest in the lower Eio Grande 

 Valley (Merrill) ; Grigsby, near Beaumont, Tex. (Eachford) ; Cal- 

 casieu (Kopman), Lake Arthur (Beyer), and Bayou Sara, La. 

 (Beckham) ; and on the coast of southern Florida north to Indian 

 Eiver (Bryant) and Anclote Keys (Scott). Though sadly depleted 

 in numbers and on the verge of extinction, }^et the species probably 

 still breeds near Cape Sable, Fla. (Bowdish), and Lake Arthur, La. 

 (Beyer, Allison, and Kopman), while as late as July, 1910, a flock 

 of about 50 was seen at the Indian Key Bird Beservation in Tampa 

 Bay, Fla. (Pillsbury). Late records in Texas are at Bockport, 

 August, 1905 (Howell) and at Brownsville June, 1907, and August, 

 1909 (Smith). 



The pink curlew, as this bird is often called, has a wide distribu- 

 tion south of the United States. It is resident on both coasts of 

 Mexico and on the large lakes of the interior, ranging on the Pacific 

 Coast north to Mazatlan (Lawrence). It is known to breed in 

 Nicaragua (Eidgway) and Costa Eica (Nutting) and has been re- 

 corded as occurring in Guatemala (Goss), Panama (Sharpe), and 

 Colombia (Bobinson). It used to be a common breeder in Great 

 Inagua Island, Bahamas (Cory), in Cuba (Gundlach), and on the 

 Isle of Pines (Poey), but is now rare if not extinct throughout this 

 region. It has been recorded as a rare visitant to Jamaica (March), 

 Haiti (Tristram), Porto Eico (Bowdish), and several of the Lesser 

 Antilles including Trinidad Island (Leotaud), while from the coast 

 of Venezuela (Ernst) south to Bahia Blanca, Argentina (Barrows) 

 and to Santiago, Chile (Philippi), it is not rare either on the coast 

 or in the interior on the larger rivers. A few have wandered south 

 to the Falkland Islands (Abbott) and the Strait of Magellan (Scla- 

 ter and Hudson). 



The breeding season is evidently exceedingly variable and greatly 

 extended. The National Museum contains eggs taken near Key 



