f 
The Roseate Spoonbill 295 
well can be where they are shot, but surprisingly tame where they are 
protected and fed. I have seen White Egrets roost nightly near a hacienda 
in Cuba where they had learned they were safe, but those in the Cuth- 
bert rookery were startled into sudden flight by the report of a gun fired 
at a distance of a mile and a half. If, therefore, Spoonbills could be made 
to realize that man was their friend rather than their enemy, they, too, 
might learn to trust him. 
Although the Spoonbills in the Cuthbert rookery had nests contain- 
ing eggs, they deserted them as soon as we entered the rookery. An 
umbrella-blind was placed in one of the larger mangrove bushes, but after 
hours of waiting no Spoonbills were seen. At sunset t uu 
the birds of various species began to return to the „ ^ 
rookery for the night. Flock after flock of White 
Ibises, with bright red feet and faces, came to roost in favorite trees. 
Louisiana herons greeted, with much talking, birds that had evidently 
been absent during the day. Turkey Vultures silently sailed in to perch 
in rows on the branches of a dead tree ; and suddenly six Spoonbills, witli 
resonant woof-zvoof-zvoof of beating wings, alighted in my foreground — 
one of them within fifteen feet of me. As it grew darker the birds 
became more numerous, pouring into the rookery from every side, and 
as they settled for the night and disputed the possession of some perch 
with their neighbors there arose a veritable Babel of voices. 
Their usual keen sight dimmed by the gloom, all the birds came to 
be less shy. A Louisiana Heron sought what was doubtless its regularly 
frequented perch within reach of my foot; others took adjoining limbs; 
and, as the crowning event of the afternoon, a Spoonbill and two Snowy 
Egrets roosted in the same tree with me. 
About a dozen Spoonbills’ nests were situated in this rookery, four or 
five of which held fresh eggs ; in one were four, in the others, three eg'gs. 
These nests were in the mangroves, often near one another, and at an 
average height of ten or twelve feet above the ground. 
They were made of larger sticks than those used by Nest and Eggs 
the American Egrets nesting near them. As a rule, 
the sticks were rather loosely put together, so that the nests were far from 
carefully made. 
The eggs of Spoonbills, as well as their habits and structure, indicate 
that they are more nearly related to the Ibises than to the Elerons. Instead 
of being blue, like those of Herons, the eggs are white, or pale greenish 
blue, more or less heavily blotched with brown at the larger end and with 
spots or specks scattered over the remaining surface, thus resembling the 
eggs of the White Ibis. They measure about two and a half inches in 
length, and one and three quarters in breadth. 
The eggs we found in the Cuthbert rookery on March 29 were freshly 
laid, but we had reason to believe that the birds had been robbed, and 
that this was a second laying. Audubon says that the eggs are laid about 
the middle of April, but there are specimens in the United States National 
