NON-INDIGENOUS BRITISH BIRDS. 193 



Family PLATALEID^. Genus Platalea. 



SPOONBILL. 



Platalea leucorodia, Liiinceus. 



(British : Formerly bred : Occasional straggler on migration. 7 



Single Brooded. Laying season in Europe, May. 



Breeding area : Southern PaLnearctic region. Nor- 

 thern Ethiopian region, and Oriental region. The 

 Spoonbill still continues to breed in Holland and the 

 South of Spain. Eastwards it becomes more plentiful 

 in the valley of the Danube, and breeds in the delta of 

 the Volga and in the Aral basin. Eastwards it breeds 

 in Asia Minor, Turkestan, and West Siberia, where it 

 was met with by Finsch as far north as lat. 48°. It also 

 breeds regularly in Southern Dauria, the valley of the 

 Amoor, and South-eastern Mongolia ; whilst southwards 

 it does so over the whole of India and Ceylon. South 

 "of the Mediterranean it breeds in suitable localities 

 throughout Africa as far south as the Soudan, and, it is 

 said, the Dahalak Archipelago (lat. 16°) in the Red Sea. 



Breeding habits : The Spoonbill arrives at its 

 more southerly breeding places in Europe about the 

 middle of April, but is a fortnight or three weeks later 

 in the north. It is a gregarious bird, breeding in colonies 

 of varying size, keeping to itself and not intermixing 

 with the Herons, Ibises, and Cormorants that may also 

 be nesting in the same locality. There can be little 

 doubt that the Spoonbill mates for life, for it returns 

 yearly to the wonted place to breed, repairing or renew- 

 ing the old nests as may be required. The usual 

 summer haunts of this bird are swamps, lakes with 

 shallow margins covered with reeds and other aquatic 

 vegetation, and the partly submerged forests of willow and 

 alder trees on the banks of rivers that are flooded every 



