es
several years for them to attain the perfect adult plumage, and unlike
most birds, they are in the best of plumage during the winter, the
colors becoming faded as the nesting season approaches. The birds are
especially noticeable because of the crooked, hollow, scoop-shaped bill,
and the extremely long legs and neck. The feet are webbed, but more for
the purpose of supporting them upon the mud flats than for use in
swimming. The nests are usually built on a sandy point of an island;
they are mounds of earth, grass and rubbish from one to two feet in
height, the top being hollowed to receive the eggs. One or two eggs are
a complete set. The shell is pale blue, but this is covered with a heavy
white chalky deposit. The eggs are laid in June and July. Size 3.40 x
2.15.

IBISES, STORKS, HERONS, etc. Order VII. HERODIONES

The members of this order are wading birds, consequently they all have
long legs and necks. They have four toes, not webbed.

SPOONBILLS. Family PLATALEIDAE

183. ROSEATE SPOONBILL. _Ajaia ajaja._.

Range.--Tropical America, north in summer to the Gulf States. They
formerly nested in remote swamps along the whole Gulf coast, but are now
confined chiefly to the Everglades in Florida.

[Illustration 117: American Flamingo. Roseate Spoonbill.]
[Illustration: right hand margin.]

Page 116

This bird, with its broad, flat bill, bare head, and rosy plumage with
carmine epaulets and tail coverts, seem more like the fanciful creation
of some artist than a real bird of flesh and blood. Its plumage and
colors are strikingly clear and beautiful. Full plumaged adult birds
have very brilliant carmine shoulders and tail coverts, a saffron
colored tail, and a lengthened tuft of bright rosy feathers on the
foreneck. This species breed in small colonies in marshy places, often
in company with herons and ibises. Their nests are rather frail
platforms of sticks, located in bushes or trees, from four to fifteen
feet from the ground. The eggs are laid during the latter part of May
and June. They are three or four in number and have a ground color of
dull white, or pale greenish blue and are quite heavily blotched with
several shades of brown. Size 2.50 x 1.70.

[Illustration 118: Pale greenish blue.]
[Illustration: Chalky bluish white. Egg of American Flamingo.]
[Illustration: deco.]
[Illustration: left hand margin.]

Page 117

IBISES. Family IBIDIDAE

Ibises are gracefully formed birds having a long c