Order ARDEIF0RME8 
No. 230. 
Family PLATALEIDM. 
PLATIBIS FLAVIPES. 
YELLOW-BILLED SPOONBILL. 
(Plate 181 .) 
Platalea flavipes Gould, Synops. Birds Austr., pt. iv., App., p. 7, 1838 ; New 
South Wales. 
Platalea flavipes Gould, Synops. Birds Austr., pt. iv., App., p. 7, 1838 ; id., Birds 
Austr., Vol. VI., pi. 49, 1842 ; Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. VII., p. 54, 
1882; Bennett, ih., p. 324; Ramsay, Tab. List Austr. Birds, p. 20, 1888; 
North, Birds County Cumberl., p. 102, 1898. 
Plafeibis flavipes Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av,, Vol. II., p. 149, 1855. 
Platibis flavipes id., Comptes Rendus Sci. (Paris), Vol. XL., p. 724, 1855; Gould, 
Handb. Birds Austr., Vol. II., p. 288, 1865 ; North, Austr. Mus. Cat., no. 12, 
p. 313, 1889 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., Vol. XXVI., p. 51, 1898 ; Keartland, 
Trans. Roy. Soc. South Austr., Vol. XXII., p. 187, 1898 ; Hall, Key Birds 
Austr., p. 97, 1899; Campbell, Nests and Eggs Austr. Birds, p. 948, 1901 ; Le 
Souef, Emu, Vol. II., p. 157, 1903 ; HaU, Key Birds Austr., p. 97, 1906 ; Ingram, 
Ibis 1907, p. 394; Berney, Emu, Vol. VI., p. 115, 1907; Mathews, Handl. 
Birds Austral., p. 31, 1908 ; North, Austr. Mus. Sp. Cat., no. 1, Vol. IV., p. 14, 
1913 ; Mathews, List Birds Austr., p. 79, 1913. 
Spatherodia flavipes “ Reich.” Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av., Vol. II., p. 149, 1855. 
Platalea flavipes flavipes Mathews, Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 229, 1912. 
Platalea flavipes whitei Mathews, ib. (Northern Territory). 
Distribution. Australia (except the South-west ?). 
Adult male, in breeding-plumage. General colour, both above and below, white ; the 
five innermost secondaries have black shafts two of which have disintegrated 
black outer webs ; there are white ornamental lanceolate feathers on the fore- 
neck. BlQ and feet pale yellow ; bare skin flesh-colour ; iris white. A narrow 
black line skicts the feathers on the fore-head, sides of face and chin. Total 
length 865 mm. ; cuhnen 190, wing 382, tail 137, tarsus 115. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 
Immature birds differ from the adults in having the shafts and tips of most of the 
primaries and secondaries black. The three innermost secondaries are brown 
at the tips on the outer webs, but not disintegrated. The ornamental feathers 
on the fore-neck only slightly developed. 
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