2oS HANDBOOK OF BRITISH BIRDS 



bird : " Fifty years back it was seen often enough 

 in England to be known to gunners and fisher- 

 men as the Black Curlew. It is now a rare visi- 

 tant, appearing at uncertain intervals, generally in 

 autumn." ^ 



In Sowerby's "British Miscellany" (1806) a 

 coloured figure is given of a Glossy Ibis in the collec- 

 tion of Dr. Lamb of Newbury, described as " the only 

 British specimen known." " " This Ibis " (says Dr. 

 Lamb) "was shot Sept. 28, 1793, while skimming 

 with another over the river Thames between Henley 

 and Reading. I found nothing in his stomach but 

 undigested plants. He had many pedieuli and a 

 vast number of other small insects about him, which 

 I sent to my learned friend and patron, T. Marsham, 

 Esq., Treas. Linn. Soc." ^ It is noticed by Montagu. 



Since the publication of the former edition of 

 this Handbook, I have noted the following occur- 

 rences of this species in the British Islands : — 



One, Derrymore, near Tralee, Oct. 1872, in the collec- 

 tion of birds belonging to Mr. Neligan. 



One, Brayton Bridge, near Selby, Yorkshire, May 1874 

 (Clarke and Roebuck, " Handb. York. Vert.," p. 52). 



Four, Poole Harbour, Oct. 1877. Pike, ZooL, 1878, p. 296. 



One, mouth of the Ythan, Aberdeenshire, Oct. 4, 1880. 

 Sim, Zool, 1881, p. 26. 



^ It has no real affinity with the Curlews, with which, owing to the 

 shape of the bill, it was formerly associated. Its relationship is with 

 the Spoonbills. Possessing certain divergent characters from the 

 typical genus Ibis, it is placed by some in a distinct genus, Plegadis. 



2 No British specimen is noticed by Willughby (1678), and it is 

 not mentioned by vSir Thomas Browne (1662). Latham (1790) refers 

 to one in the Leverian Museum, which was shot in Cornwall. 



^ See Lamb's " Ornithologia Bercheria," Zool., 1880, p. 313. 



