CHAPTER XI 



Till". \VIHTI': SPOONIMIJ- 



TiiAi' very iiUrrc^sLinL; l)ii\l, the White Spoonl)Ill, 



once ik'sUhI in this counlry, cstablisliini^ itself in 



the trees in the same manner that th(; llerons do 



at the present day. Sussex was one of the; counties 



it n(>sl('d in, antl it now VMsits us occasionally. Al- 



thous^h a rare* xisitor, it has hvc.n shot on the 



marshes wliich 1 know so well. When Spoonbills 



come, the (iulls persecute them terribly, driving the 



poor stranoer's all over the mud-flats. The late 



E. T. l^ooth shot a female Spoonbill on Hreydon 



mud-llats, nc;ar Yarmouth, in May 1871, and a male 



of the same species on the same Hals in May 1873. 



Hoth these birds aw in his matchless collection. 



in June 1873 he shot a very rare visitor, nothing 



less than a fme White Stork, on i\ush llills, near 



l\)Ucr I leiiiham, in Norfolk, where the White 



Spoonbill also nested in past years. In some 



records of i6()8, these Spoonbills are mentioned as 



Shovelardes "- -white birds with sj)oon-shaj:)ed bills 



anil rapped (crested) crowns which buill in trees. 



Now this description is delmile enough to jirove 



that the " Shovelardt^ " must be the S[)oonbill, as 



the Slu)veller Duck diH's not answer to it. 



1 1^ 



