420 ROSEATE SPOONBILL. 



ning to form; the legs, yellowish green daubed with black ; the 

 feet, greenish yellow ; the lower mandible, white at the base ; 

 the wings, when shut, nearly of a length with the tail, which 

 is even at the end. 



The little egret, or European species, is said by Latham 

 and Turton to be nearly a foot in length. Bewick observes, 

 that it rarely exceeds a foot and a half ; has a much shorter 

 crest, with two long feathers ; the feet are black ; and the 

 long plumage of the back, instead of turning up at the extre- 

 mity, falls over the rump. 



The young of both these birds are generally very fat, and 

 esteemed by some people as excellent eating. 



EOSEATE SPOONBILL. (Platalea ajaja.) 



PLATE LXIIL— Fig. I. 



Arct. Zool. No. 338. — Lath. S>m. hi. p. 16, No. 2.— La Spatule Coleur de Rose, 

 Briss. Orn. v. p. 3562, pi. 30. — Buff. vii. 456, pi. col. 116.— Peak's Museum, 



No. 3553. 



PLATALEA AJAJA.— LiNNiEUS.* 

 Platalea ajaja, Bonap. Synop. p. 346. 



This stately and elegant bird inhabits the sea-shores of 

 America from Brazil to Georgia. It also appears to wander 

 up the Mississippi sometimes in summer, the specimen from 

 which the figure in the plate was drawn having been sent me 



* This group, remarkable for the curious development of the bill, joins 

 a number of characters in common with the herons and tantali. They 

 live during the breeding season in communities, and feed in twilight ; 

 their food is fish and aquatic animals, and they are said to search in the 

 mud with their bills in the manner of ducks, where the soft and closely 

 nervous substance enables them to detect the smaller insects. To look 

 at the bill in a stuffed or preserved state, it is hard and horny, but when 

 living it is remarkably tender, and has rather a fleshy and soft look and 

 feel. The common British species is easily tamed, and, like most of its 

 nearer allies, eats voraciously ; fish will support them, and even porridge, 

 with a little raw meat ; the gape is very wide, and substances are 

 swallowed in immediate succession, taken always crosswise, and then 

 tossed over. The trachea in the male performs a single convolution in 



