Family PLATALEIDAE. 



Platalea leucorodia L. — Spoonbill. 



(Plates 123-125, fig. a-f). 

 (Snouckaert: Avifauna Neerlandica, p. 85, No. 201). 



Colour of surface of shell : 



Colour of spots: 



Average dimensions: 

 Average weight of shell : 

 Texture of shell: 



Shape: 

 Nest: 



Site of nest: 



Number of eggs: 

 Breeding season: 



Duration of Incubation: 

 Remark : 



dull white, tinged more or less yellowish 

 through the glutinous layer; when quite 

 fresh sometimes with a faint bluish or gree- 

 nish shade; when light penetrate through 

 the shell it shows through a light greenish 

 yellow. 



dark, dirty olive-green, or dark, dirty brown, 

 occasionally tinged with dirty rust-colour; 

 sometimes underlying spots show through 

 violet. 



68 X 45.5 millimetres. 

 6.9 grams- 

 corresponds, in comparison with that of Ardca, 

 more with A. purpurea than with A. cincrca; 

 grooves and rows of pores as in Ardcidac, 

 often occur; among the pores there arc 

 some which are elongated oblongly on one 

 side and look like notches made with the 

 point of a knife. ') 



usually elongated ovoidal. 



consists of rootstocks, reed stems of previous 

 years, and blades of ordinary reed. 



on the ground in the midst of a dense reed 

 vegetation (formerly, in this country, also 

 in high trees and on low stumps of willows 

 and alders); breeds in colonies. 



3—4 (mostly 4, in exceptional cases more). 



April, May, June; eggs are sometimes also 

 found even in July. 



about 28 days. 



NOZEMAN ') says that he has never seen any but 

 whnlly white eggs, which statement, in view of 

 the number that he must have seen. 1 can only 

 explain by assuming that he alwavs took pigment 

 spots to be accessory spots caused by ncst-dirt or 

 in other manner- 



') To this circumstance, parlicularlv in respect of eggs of PI. leucorodia, attention was 

 drawn for the first time, and rightiv I' think, hv von PETENVl. (See his „Ornithologische Frag- 

 mcnle", published at Ocra-Unterinhaus, \W5, p. 33li) Rf.y refers (1. c. page 439) to similar pores 

 as occurring rather often in eggs of llic Ardeidae. To me, however, they appear to be mucli 

 less pronounced in eggs of the Ardcidac than in Icucorodin-cggs, 



^) Ned. Vogelen, II, p- 171. 



