26 
ROSEATE SPOON-BILL. 
mage of the back, instead of turning up at the extremity, falls 
over the rump. 
The young of both these birds are generally very fat, and 
esteemed by some people as excellent eating. 
ROSEATE SPOON-BILL PLATALEA AJAJA. 
Plate LXIIL Fig. 1. 
Arct. Zool. No. 338. — Lath. Syn. iii. p. 16, No. 2 La Spatule colour de rose. 
JBriss. Orn. v. p. 3662. pi. 30; Luff. vii. 456, pi. col. 116. — Peale's Mu- 
seum, No. 3553. 
PLATALEA AJAJA. — LiNNiEus.* 
Platalea ajaja. JBonap. Synop. p. 346. 
This stately and elegant bird inhabits the sea-shores of 
America, from Brazil to Georgia. It also appears to wander 
up the Mississippi sometimes in summer, the specimen from 
which the figure in the plate was drawn, having been sent me 
from the neighbourhood of Natchez, in excellent order ; for 
which favour I am indebted to the family of my late benevo- 
lent and scientific friend, William Dunbar, Esq., of that terri- 
tory. It is now deposited in Mr Peale’s Museum. This spe- 
cies, however, is rarely seen to the northward of the Alatamaha 
river ; and even along the peninsula of Florida is a scarce bird. 
* This group, remai'kable for the curious developement of the hill, join a 
number of characters in common with the herons and tantali. They live during 
the breeding season in communities, and feed in twilight ; the food is fish, and 
aquatic animals, and they are said to search in the mud with their bills in the 
manner of ducks, where the soft and closely nervous substance enables them 
to detect the smaller insects. To look at the bill in a stuffed or preserved 
state, it is hard and horny, but when living it is remarkably tender, and has 
rather a fleshy and soft look and feel. The common British species is easily 
tamed, and, like most of its nearer allies, eats voraciously ; fish will support 
them, and even porridge, with a little raw meat; the gape is very wide, and sub- 
stances are swallowed in immediate succession, taken always crosswise, and then 
tossed over. The trachea in the male performs a single convolution in the ster- 
num. The genus contains three or four species : that of Europe, found also 
in India; a species from Africa very near P. ajaja, peculiar to America, and 
the Spatule huppee of Sonnerat, which Mons. Temminck thinks distinct. In 
all, the young do not attain full plumage till after the first moult. — Ed. 
