331. AJAJA ROSEA, Reichenb. (ROSEATE SPOONBILL.) +Platalea ajaja+, _Burm. La-Plata Reise_, ii. p. 511; _Scl. et Salv. P. Z. S._ 1868, p. 145; _iid. Nomencl._ p. 127; _Hudson, P. Z. S._ 1876, p. 15 (Buenos Ayres); _Durnford, Ibis_, 1877, p. 190 (Buenos Ayres); _Gibson, Ibis_, 1880, p. 156 (Buenos Ayres); _Barrows, Auk_, 1884, p. 272 (Entrerios, Bahia Blanca). +Ajaja rosea+, _Baird, Brew., et Ridgw. Water-B. N. A._ i. p. 102. _Description._--Head bare; neck, back, and breast white; tail orange-buff, with the shafts deep pink and inner webs stained with pink; rest of plumage pale rose-pink; lesser wing-coverts and upper and lower tail-coverts intense carmine; neck with a tuft of twisted plumes, light carmine; sides of breast pale creamy buff; bill yellowish grey; head greenish, space round the eye and gular sac orange; feet pale pink: whole length 30·0 inches, wing 15·0, tail 5·0. _Female_ similar. _Young_ with the head completely feathered. _Hab._ North and South America. The Roseate Spoonbill is found in both Americas and ranges south to the Straits of Magellan, but in Patagonia it is, I think, rare, for on the Rio Negro I did not meet with it. On the pampas it is abundant, and I have been told that it breeds in the marshes there, but I have never been able to find a nest. It is usually seen in small flocks of from half a dozen to twenty individuals, which all feed near together, wading up to their knees and sweeping their long flat beaks from side to side as they advance. An English acquaintance of mine kept one of these birds as a pet on his estancia for seven years. It was very docile, and would spend the day roaming about the grounds, associating with the poultry, but invariably presented itself in the dining-room at meal-time, where it would take its station at one end of the table, and dexterously catch in its beak any morsel thrown to it. I believe that more than one species of Spoonbill inhabits South America, and that the common Spoonbill of the pampas is a distinct species from the well-known Ajaja. Some remarks of mine on this subject were printed in the 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London' about nine years ago; but I find that I am alone amongst ornithologists in this belief; I can, therefore, only repeat here what I have said before, and leave the question for time to decide.