lOO THE BIRDS OF THE BRITISH ISLES. 



are deserted, amongst these Britain, where until the seven- 

 teenth century it nested in East Anglia, some southern counties, 

 and South Wales. One of the earliest birds to receive legal 

 protection, it was even unlawful to take its eggs, but these 

 efforts failed to save it. To-day it is a more or less regular visitor 

 to Norfolk and Suffolk, on spring and autumn migration, 

 sometimes appearing in small flocks. To other parts of our 

 islands it is a casual visitor. 



Tall, white, crested, and with a long bill broadly spatulate at 

 the tip, the Spoonbill is unlike any other bird, yet confusion 

 has arisen through duplication of names. Its old name was 

 "Shovelard" or " Shoveler," and the Shoveler Duck is still 

 called the " Spoonbill" ; indeed, one old wildfowler distinguished 

 it as the "White Spoonbill." Now that the Breydon tidal mud 

 is under the eye of a v.atcher, passing Spoonbills wisely halt on 

 this safe water when their migration route carries them over 

 East Anglia ; if they wander further afield the protection laws 

 seldom save them from the '• sportsman." So conspicuous 

 a bird is an easy mark. E. T. Booth rightly states that gulls 

 will mob a Spoonbill, but I have seen a Spoonbill sleeping on a 

 spit of sand surrounded by tired and equally peaceful gulls. 

 Its bill was tucked away in its scapulars, but its long crest 

 showed very distinctly ; one tucked-up leg was invisible, the 

 tarsus of the other perpendicular, its body horizontal, though, 

 as a rule, the pose is upright (Plate 40). I was near enough 

 to see a ruddy tinge on its white breast. Then it woke, 

 yawned, and stretched a wing along its raised leg, and lazily 

 flapped across the Broad, alighted in shallow water, and 

 began to feed. Dipping its paddle bill, it scooped for molluscs 

 or crustaceans, moving it round with a circular motion ; in 

 deeper water the bill was immersed to the base, but the same 

 circular sweep from side to side was made. Small fish and 

 frogs, as well as worms and insects, are eaten. I found it again 

 on the sand next morning, and watched it depart, its great 



