In connection with the procuring of some of these birds, I find a rather curious occurrence recorded in my journal. On the 2d of May 1837, my party and I went on shore from the Revenue Cutter the “Campbell,” on the island of Galveston, for the purpose of obtaining fish and prawns, the latter of which are in that country extremely abundant, and certainly the largest I have ever seen. Our fishing over, we were on the point of returning, when we saw three Spoonbills alight on a sand-bar, and almost immediately proceed to the water in search of food. My son was despatched after them, and having waded through some muddy parts of the inlet on the shore of which we were standing, he succeeded in getting near, and killed the finest of the three. Almost at the same instant, the back fins of a large fish, resembling those of a shark, were seen meandering above the surface of the shallow waters. My son received prompt intelligence of this, to enable him to make good his return. The monster moved about rather slowly, and JOHN having rammed home a couple of bullets, lodged them in its body, on which it floundered about apparently in great agony. One of our boats immediately pushed toward the spot, and my son was taken on board, while the animal used its best efforts to get into deeper water. Now sailors and all joined in the chase. The gun was again charged with balls, my son waded once more towards it, and lodged the missiles in its body, while from the bow of the boat it received several blows from the oars and gaff-hook. The tars all leaped into the water, and the bleeding fish was at once closely beset. The boatswain at a single lucky stroke cut off its tail, and having afterwards fastened the hook in one of its eyes, we dragged it to the beach. About a hundred Mexican prisoners, Texian soldiers, and officers, were there; but instead of our prize turning out a shark, it proved to be a sawfish, measuring rather more than twelve feet in length. From its body we took out alive ten young ones. It was cut into pieces by the Mexican prisoners, and soon devoured. Five or six of the young were put into rum, and ultimately carried to England. The feathers of the wings and tail of the Roseate Spoonbill are manufactured into fans by the Indians and Negroes of Florida; and at St Augustine these ornaments form in some degree a regular article of trade. Their flesh is oily and poor eating. PLATALEA AJAJA, _Linn._ Syst. Nat. vol i. p. 231.—_Lath._ Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 668.—_Ch. Bonaparte_, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p. 346. ROSEATE SPOONBILL, PLATALEA AJAJA, _Wils._ Amer. Ornith. vol. vii. p. 123, pl. 63, fig. 1.—_Nuttall_, Manual, vol. ii. p. 79. Adult Male. Plate CCCXXI.