296 
The Roseate Spoonbill 
Museum which were secured on Marquesas Key, Florida, on January ii,| 
1883. Unquestionably, therefore, the birds begin to nest as early asj! 
January. Dates may be later, as with the Cuthbert rookery birds’ second ! j 
layings, or owing to the variation in nesting-time that sometimes occurs ' 
among birds breeding in warm climates, where the necessity for regularity i i 
is not so urgent as it is further north, where the warm season is shorter. j,i 
On April 17, 1910, I found a colony of about two hundred pairs of | 
Roseate Spoonbills on Pajaro Island, in Tamiahua Lagoon, on the eastern j J 
coast of Mexico, south of Tampico. Most of their nests contained well- \ 
grown young at least a month old, and probably older. I 
The Young Allowing a month for hatching, it is evident that these ; ' 
birds began to lay about the middle of February. 
Spoonbills are covered shortly after birth with a snowy white down, ! , 
through which one may see enough of their pink skin to give them a', 
reddish appearance; the feathers themselves, however, are not colored, j; 
While they are in the nest this plumage, ‘'natal down,” as it is called, is | 
followed by what is known as the “juvenal plumage,” in which they leave j 
the nest. In general appearance young Spoonbills then strongly resemble s 
their parents, but the head and throat are thinly covered with white | 
feathers, and the rusty marks at the sides of the breast and at the end of ; 
the tail of the adult have become pink. j 
In this Mexican colony four was the usual number of young. They ! 
were well-behaved youngsters, and in the absence of their parents rested | 
peacefully in their homes, or occasionally ventured on thrilling excursions iji 
of a few feet to the adjoining limbs. But when their parents returned j 
they were all attention and on the alert for food. On such occasions they I 
usually stood in a row on the edge of the nest facing the old birds, and | 
in a most comical manner swung the head and neck up and down. I ; 
have seen balanced mechanical toys which would make almost exactly the |l 
same motion. The toys, however, were silent, while the little Spoonbills j, 
all joined in a chorus of tremulous, trilling whistles, which grew louder 
and more rapid as the parent approached. 
What their parents brought them I could not see, nor, for that matter, 
could they. But, with a confidence born of experience, the bird that had 
the first opportunity pushed its bill and head far down into its parent’s 
mouth to get whatever was there. This singular operation sometimes 
lasted as long as ten seconds, and it was terminated only by the parent | 
which, much against the will of its ofifspring, disengaged itself ; then after | 
a short rest a second youngster was fed, and thus in due time the whole 1 
family was satisfied. . 
Classification and Distribution | 
The Roseate Spoonbill belongs to the Order Herodiones and Family Plata- | 
leidae; and its scientific name is Ajaia ajaja. It ranges throughout South America :| 
and formerly inhabited the whole northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and the ! 
lower Mississippi Valley, but now exists only in southern Florida. i 
NOTE — Additi^'iial copies of this and other Educational Leaflets mav b- obtained for 5 cents each 
from the National Association of Audubon Societies, No. 1974 Broadway, New York City. 
