The Roseate SpoonhlU. 
69 
" I believe that more than one species of Spoonbill inhabits South 
" America, and that the common Sponhill of the pampas is a distinct species 
" from the well known ' Ajaja;' but I find I am alone anionn;st ornitholo- 
■' fjisls in this belief. The general belief is that the pale-plumag'ed birds 
" vvilh feathered heads and black eyes (the Roseate Spoonbill having crim- 
" son eyes) and wilhoul the brigl 1 wing s;io's, the luft on the breast, horny 
" excrescences < n the beak, and other niarks are only immature birds. 
" Now for one iiirl with all these characteristic marks of the true ' Ajaja 
which has a yellow tail, we iiiet't on the pamjias with not less than two 
" to three hundred examples of the p ile-])lumage(l bird, without any traces 
" of stich ni.arks. and with a rosc-culonred tail : ;ind the disparity in number 
" betv\een nialtiie and inmiatnre birds of one s|)ecies could not well be so 
" great as th.al. 1 h.ive shot one immature specimen of the true ' Ajaja,' 
■' so iinniatnre that it seemed not long out of the nest; but the head was 
" bare f)f feathers, and it had the knobs on the upper mandible, only they 
" were so soft th.it tliev conkl be indented with the nail of the finger. 
'■ .\\ara mentions an innnature bird which he obtained, but he does not 
" say that the head was feathered; and even this negative evidence goes d 
" great way, since it would have been very unlike him to see a Spoonbill 
" with a feathered head, and otherwise imlike Ajaja rosea, and not describe 
" it as a distinct species. There are also anatomical differences between the 
" two birds; the pale-plumaged species having an ordinary trachea, while 
■' .-1. rosea has a very curiously formed trachea, unlike that of any other 
" bird. To conclude I may mention that the pet bird my friend kept was 
" of the i)ale-plumaged species, and never lost the feathers from its head, 
" nor did it acquire any of the characteristic marks of P. ajaja." 
This was written some 40 years ago, and it is to be 
assumed that this question has been cleared up long since. 
[A. H. Evans, in Cambridge Natural History (Birds), 
published in 199, states in his comment on the young of spoon- 
bills " In Ajaja the head is entirely feathered." — Ed.] 
<^fX^ 
Laheland "Eagles", 
Reprinted from The Times, March 12th, 1920, with thanks tc 
the Editors and Author. Cutting per Rev. G. H. 
Raynor, M.A. — Ed, 
