SPAR — SPOONBILL. 223 



Spence. a Shetland name for the STORM-PETREL. It is in 

 use in the Island of Yell. Swainson gives the name as 

 Spency for the Shetland Isles and the same spelling is given 

 by Montagu, while Saxby prints it Spencie. 



Speug, Spiug, or Speout. Names for the HOUSE-SPARROW. 

 See also Spug. 



Spider-catcher: The WALLCREEPER. Occurs in Wil- 

 lughby. 



Spider-diver : The LITTLE GREBE. (Provincial.) 



Spink. An English pro\dncial name for the CHAFFINCH. 

 From its note. Occurs in Turner (1544). Also applied in 

 Yorkshire to the YELLOW BUNTING. 



Spinner : The NIGHTJAR. (Wexford.) 



Spirit Duck : The BUFFEL-HEADED DUCK. From its 

 quickness in di\dng. 



Split Straw: The WHITETHROAT. (Cheshire.) 



Spog-ri-tom: The LITTLE GREBE. (Western Isles of 

 Scotland.) 



SPOONBILL [No. 258]. Anciently called Popeler, Shovelard, 

 or Shovelar, and perhaps "Liver " (q.v.), the name Spoon- 

 bill having been transferred to this species from the Shoveler 

 Duck, the bills of both birds being spatulate at the end. 

 Although now only a scarce and irregular visitor to our 

 shores, the Shovelar or Popeler is recorded as breeding in 

 several places in Norfolk about the year 1300, where it no 

 doubt continued to do so for two or three centuries, while 

 Mr. Harting has sho\vn that in 1523 it is recorded as breeding 

 on the Bishop of London's property at Fulham (" Zool.," 

 1886, p. 81), and also in 1570 in West Sussex (ib., 1877, 

 p. 425). The latest record of its breeding in England 

 appears to be Sir Thomas Browne's statement that it 

 "now " {ca. 1662) bred at Ttimley in Suffolk. Turner, how- 

 ever, who calls it merely " Shovelard," says nothing about 

 its breeding A^th us in his day, and in fact says little about 

 it beyond repeating the legend of Aristotle and Pliny that 

 it devours biggish shell-fish and casts them up again when 

 dead and gaping to pick and eat them. He also repeats the 

 tradition of Hieronymus that when they find their young 

 killed by a serpent they " mourn and beat themselves upon 

 their sides, and AAdth the blood discharged they bring back 

 to life the bodies of the dead," which is one of the legends 

 later attributed to the Pelican, owing to the confusion of 

 names, the present species having formerly been so called 

 (see PELICAN.) 



