TANTALIN^. PLATALEA. 
259 
yellowish-brown, sides of head dark bluish-purple, upper part of head 
horn-colour ; legs indigo-blue ; toes yellowish, with the scutella black ; 
plumage white, tinged with yellow ; alula, primary coverts, primary 
and secondary quills, excepting the inner, and tail, black, with green 
and purplish-blue reflections. Young dusky grey all over, the quills 
and tail brown and black, the head covered with down. 
Male, 44|, 62 ; bill, 9. 
Resident from Texas to North Carolina, in deep woody swamps ; 
or fresh- water lakes, not on the sea-shores; breeds on trees in swamps; 
moves in large flocks. Up the Mississippi to Natchez. Abundant in 
Florida and Lower Louisiana. 
Wood Ibis, Tantalus Loculator, WiLS. Amer. Orn. v. viii. p. 39. 
Tantalus Loculator, Bonap. Syn. p. 310. 
Wood Ibis, Nctt. Man. v. ii. p. 82. 
Wood Ibis, Tantalus Loculator, Aun. Orn. Biog. v. iii. p. 128. 
GENUS III. PLATALEA, Linn. SPOONBILL. 
Bill very long, excessively depressed, being, when viewed 
laterally, very slender ; but, when seen from above, nearly 
as broad as the head at the base, considerably contracted in 
the middle, and at the end expanded into a large obovate 
disk much broader than the head ; upper mandible with 
the dorsal line almost straight, at the tip decurved,^ the 
ridge extremely broad and flat, gradually widening beyond 
the nostrils, at the end terminated by the very small, de- 
curved, blunt unguis, the sides decimate at the base, hori- 
zontally flattened towards the end, separated in their whole 
length from the ridge by a narrow groove, their margins 
soft and blunt ; lower mandible with the angle very long, 
narrow, rounded, the coma narrow^ and gradually flattened, 
the extremity expanded into a flattened disk, as in the 
upper ;.both mandibles covered with soft skin, which, for 
half their length, is rough, with roundish plates, having 
their anterior margin somewhat prominent. Nostrils basal, 
oblong-linear, of moderate size. Head of moderate size, 
flattened above ; neck long and slender ; body compact, 
ovate ; legs long and rather stout ; tibia bare in its lower 
half, and reticulate ; tarsus rather long, stout, roundish, 
covered all round with subhexagonal scales; toes rather 
