72 
ROSEATE SPOONBILL. 
Platalea Ajaja, Linn . 
PLATE CCCLXII.— Adult Male. 
This beautiful and singular bird, although a constant resident in the 
southern extremities of the peninsula of Florida, seldom extends its journeys 
in an eastern direction beyond the State of North Carolina. Indeed it is of 
extremely rare occurrence there, and even in South Carolina, my friend 
John Bachman informs ine that lie has observed only three individuals in 
the course of twenty years. He once obtained a specimen in full plumage 
about ten miles north of Charleston. It is rarely seen in the interior of the 
country at any distance from the waters of the Atlantic, or those of the 
Gulf of Mexico. A specimen sent to Wilson at Philadelphia from the 
neighbourhood of the city of Natchez, in the State of Mississippi, appears to 
have lost itself, as during my stay in that section of the country I never 
heard of another ; nor have I ever met with one of these birds farther up the 
Mississippi than about thirty miles from its mouths. Although rather 
abundant on some parts of the coast of Florida, I found it more so along the 
Bay of Mexico, particularly in Galveston Bay in the Texas, where, as well 
as on the Florida Keys, it breeds in flocks. The Spoonbills are so sensible 
of cold, that those which spend the winter on the Keys, near Cape Sable 
in Florida, rarely leave those parts for the neighbourhood of St. Augustine 
before the first days of March. But after this you may find them along 
most of the water courses running parallel to the coast, and distant 
about half a mile or a mile from it. I saw none on any part of the St. 
John’s river ; and from all the answers which I obtained to my various 
inquiries respecting this bird, I feel confident that it never breeds in the 
interior of the peninsula, nor is ever seen' there in winter. 
The Roseate Spoonbill is found for the most part along the marshy and 
muddy borders of estuaries, the mouths of river3, ponds, or sea islands, or 
keys partially overgrown with bushes, and perhaps still more commonly 
along the shores of those singular salt-water bayous so abundant within a 
mile or so of the shores, where they can reside and breed in perfect security 
in the midst of an abundance of food. It is more or less gregarious at all 
seasons, and it is rare to meet with fewer than half a dozen together, unless 
