290 
ROSEATE SPOONBILL. 
common in Holland.* To atone for this deficiency, I have endeavored 
faithfully to delineate the figure of this American species, and may 
perhaps resume the subject, in some future part of the present Avork. 
The Roseate Spoonbill, now before us, measured two feet six inches 
in length, and near four feet in extent ; the bill was six inches and a half 
long, from the corner of the mouth, seven from its upper base, two 
inches over at its greatest width, and three-quarters of an inch where 
narrowest ; of a black color for half its length, and covered with hard 
scaly protuberances, like the edges of oyster shells : these are of a 
whitish tint, stained with red ; the nostrils are oblong, and placed in the 
centre of the upper mandible; from the lower end of each nostril there 
runs a deep groove along each side of the mandible, and about a quarter 
of an inch from its edge ; whole crown and chin bare of plumage, and 
covered with a greenish skin : that below the under mandible dilatable, 
as in the genus Pelicanus ; space round the eye orange; irides blood 
red ; cheeks and hind head a bare black skin ; neck long, covered with 
short white feathers, some of which, on the upper part of the neck, are 
tipped with crimson ; breast white, the sides of which are tinged with a 
brown burnt-color ; from the upper part of the breast proceeds a long 
tuft of fine hair-like plumage, of a pale rose color ; back white, slightly 
tinged with brownish ; wings a pale wild-rose color, the shafts lake ; the 
shoulders of the wings are covered with long hairy plumage of a deep 
and splendid carmine ; upper and lower tail coverts the same rich red ; 
belly rosy ; rump paler ; tail equal at the end, consisting of twelve 
feathers, of a bright brownish orange, the shafts reddish ; legs, and 
naked part of the thighs, dark dirty red ; feet half webbed ; toes very 
long, particularly the hind one. The upper part of the neck had the 
plumage partly worn away, as if occasioned by resting it on the back, 
in the manner of the Ibis. The skin on the crown is a little wrinkled ; 
the inside of the wing a much richer red than the outer. 
* The European species breeds on trees, by the seaside ; lays three or four white 
eggs, powdered with a few pale red spots, and about the size of those of a hen ; are 
very noisy during breeding time ; feed on fish, muscles, &c, which, like the Bald 
Eagle, they frequently take from other birds, frightening them by clattering their 
bill ; they are also said to eat grass, weeds, and roots of reeds : they are migra- 
tory ; their flesh reported to savor of that of a goose ; the young are reckoned good 
food. 
