Platalea minor Temminck and Schlegel, Fauna Japonica Aves
(1850), 120, pl. 76; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26,
50; Hand-List (1889), 1, 188; McGregor, Phil. Jour. Sci. (1906),
1, 766.
Luzon (Banks). Korea, Japan, China, and Formosa.
"Adult male.--Entirely white with a small but full nuchal crest;
bare forehead black, the black skin extending just behind the eye
and occupying the sides of the face, fore parts of cheeks, and upper
throat, on which the white feathers impinge in a triangular form
in the center; a yellow spot in front of the eye. 'Bill slate-color,
transversely barred with black, the bars broken and disconnected on the
spatule; apical edge black, succeeded by a patch and scattered spots
of orange-ocher over the spatule, which is also freckled with light
slate-color; inside of mouth deep indigo-black; inside of nostrils
ocherous; bare skin of face black, with a bright yellow-ocher patch
before eye, extending over under lid, and a thin line over upper lid;
legs purplish black; iris blood-red.' (Swinhoe.) Length, 685; culmen,
183; wing, 371; tail, 107; tarsus, 121.
"Adult female.--Similar to the male. 'Bill flesh-color, longitudinally
streaked and speckled with blackish, mottled and freckled with
slate-color, chiefly about the spatule; bare skin of face dull purplish
brown; feet purplish black; iris yellowish brown.' (Swinhoe.) Length,
660; culmen, 185; wing, 356; tail, 102; tarsus, 119.
"Young.--Differs from the adults in having a more yellowish bill,
and blackish shaft-stripes to the quills; outer primaries blackish
at ends of outer webs." (Sharpe.)
Mr. Charles S. Banks of the Bureau of Science brought the head of
a spoonbill from Dagupan, Luzon, where he found this species not
uncommon in November, 1907. While I have referred this specimen to
Platalea minor its specific identity is uncertain.
Suborder CICONIÆ.
Family CICONIIDÆ.
Bill long, stout, compressed, and tapering, tip pointed; culmen
straight except at the tip; nostril pervious in a slit; wing large;
secondaries longer than primaries; tail short; tarsus about as long
as culmen and covered with small hexagonal scales; hind toe about
half the length of inner toe; nails short and blunt.
Subfamily CICONIINÆ.
Genus DISSÖURA Cabanis, 1850.
Character same as those given for the Family.