50 
ROSEATE SPOONBILL - 
first year; of the roseate colour of the present the second year; 
and of a deep scarlet the third. * 
Having never been so fortunate as to meet with them in their 
native wilds, I regret my present inability to throw any farther 
light on their history and manners. These, it is probable, may 
resemble, in many respects, those of the European species, the 
White Spoonbill, once so common in Holland. t To atone for 
this deficiency, I have endeavoured faithfully to delineate the 
figure of this American species, and may perhaps resume the 
subject, in some future part of the present work. 
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 colour 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 tipt with 
crimson; breast white, the sides of which are tinged with a 
brown burnt-colour; from the upper part of the breast proceeds 
a long tuft of fine hair-like plumage, of a pale rose colour; back 
® Latham. 
t The European species breeds on trees, by the sea-side; lays three or lour 
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 migratory; their flesh reported to savour of that of a goose; the young are 
reckoned good food. 
