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SPECIMENS of this bird when seen for the first time always excite wonder
and admiration. The beautiful plumage, the strange figure, and the
curiously shaped bill at once attract attention. Formerly this Spoonbill
was found as far west as Illinois and specimens were occasionally met with
about ponds in the Mississippi Bottoms, below St. Louis. Its habitat is the
whole of tropical and subtropical America, north regularly to the Gulf
coast of the United States.
Audubon observed that the Roseate Spoonbill is to be met with along the
marshy or muddy borders of estuaries, the mouths of rivers, on sea islands,
or keys partially overgrown with bushes, and still more abundantly along
the shores of the salt-water bayous, so common within a mile or two of the
shore. There it can reside and breed, with almost complete security, in the
midst of an abundance of food. It is said to be gregarious at all seasons,
and that seldom less than half a dozen may be seen together, unless they
have been dispersed by a tempest. At the approach of the breeding season
these small flocks come together, forming immense collections, and resort
to their former nesting places, to which they almost invariably return. The
birds moult late in May, and during this time the young of the previous
year conceal themselves among the mangroves, there spending the day,
returning at night to their feeding grounds, but keeping apart from the old
birds, which last have passed through their spring moult early in March.
The Spoonbill is said occasionally to rise suddenly on the wing, and ascend
gradually in a spiral manner, to a great height. It flies with its neck
stretched forward to its full length, its legs and feet extended behind. It
moves with easy flappings, until just as it is about to alight, when it
sails over the spot with expanded wing and comes gradually to the ground.
Usually the Spoonbill is found in the company of Herons, whose vigilance
apprises it of any danger. Like those birds, it is nocturnal, its principal
feeding time being from near sunset until daylight. In procuring its food
it wades into the water, immerses its immense bill in the soft mud, with
the head, and even the whole neck, beneath the surface, moving its
partially opened mouth to and fro, munching the small fry--insects or
shell-fish--before it swallows them. Where many are together, one usually
acts as a sentinel. The Spoonbill can alight on a tree and walk on the
large branches with much facility.
The nests of these birds are platforms of sticks, built close to the trunks
of trees, from eight to eighteen feet from the ground. Three or four eggs
are usually laid. The young, when able to fly, are grayish white. In their
second year they are unadorned with the curling feathers on the breast, but
in the third spring they are perfect.
Formerly very abandant, these attractive creatures have greatly diminished
by the constant persecution of the plume hunters.
[Illustration: ROSEATE SPOONBILL.]