76 
ROSEATE SPOONBILL. 
which it floundered about apparently in great agony. One of our boats 
immediately pushed toward the spot, and my son was taken on board, while 
the animal used its best efforts to get into deeper water. Now sailors and 
all joined in the chase. The gun was again charged with balls, my sou 
waded once more towards it, and lodged the missiles in its body, while from 
the bow of the boat it received several blows from the oars and gaff-hook. 
The tars all leaped into the water, and the bleeding fish was at once closely 
beset. The boatswain at a single lucky stroke cut off its tail, and having 
afterwards^fastencd the hook in one of its eyes, we dragged it to the beach. 
About a hundred Mexican prisoners, Texian soldiers, and officers, were 
there ; but instead of our prize turning out a shark, it proved to be a sawfish, 
measuring rather more than twelve feet in length. From its body we took 
out alive ten young ones. It was cut into pieces by the Mexican prisoners, 
and soon devoured. Five or six of the young were put into rum, and 
ultimately carried to England. 
The feathers of the wings and tail of the Roseate Spoonbill are manu- 
factured into fans by the Indians and Negroes of Florida ; and at St. 
Augustine these ornaments form in some degree a regular article of trade. 
Their flesh is oily and poor eating. 
Roseate Spoonbill, Platalea Ajaja , Wils. Amer. Orn., vol. vii. p. 123. 
Platalea Ajaja, Bonap. Syn., p. 346. 
Roseate Spoonbill, Nutt. Man., vol. ii. p. 79. 
Roseate Spoonbill, Platalea Ajaja , And. Orn. Biog., vol. iv. p. 188. 
Male, 30-2, 53. Female, 28, 48. 
Constant resident in the Texas, South Florida, and as far eastward as 
North Carolina, where it is, however, very rare. Occasionally in summer 
up the Mississippi to Natchez. Breeds in flocks on trees, low bushes, or 
cactuses. 
Adult Male. 
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 
outline almost straight, descending at the base, at the tip decurved, the ridge 
extremely broad and flat, gradually widening beyond the nostrils, at the end 
terminated by the very small, decurved, blunt claw ; the sides declinate at 
the base, horizontally flattened towards the end, separated in their whole 
length from the ridge by a narrow groove, their margins soft and blunt. 
Nostrils basal, oblong-linear, of moderate size. Lower mandible with the 
