SPOONBILL. 263 



mainly, if not entirely, to the estuaries of the east coast ; it is note- 

 worthy, however, that in the autumn of 1859 ^ flock of half-a-score 

 visited the Orkneys, whence few of them were permitted to return. To 

 Ireland this bird has likewise always been only an occasional visitor. 



The proper range of the species includes the whole of central and 

 southern Europe, together with eastern Africa, the south-western 

 countries of Asia, and thence through Baluchistan, Afghanistan, and 

 the heart of the eastern continent to India and China. In parts of 

 India spoonbills are resident birds, frequenting marshes, tanks, rivers, 

 or rice-fields in small flocks, and feeding in shallow water on insects, 

 shrimps and crabs, snails, water-plants, and, less commonly, frogs and 

 small fishes. To Holland and other parts of northern Europe the 

 species is a summer-visitor, arriving in April and departing towards 

 the close of September. It is somewhat remarkable that while in India 

 at the present day as in England in past times, spoonbills build in tall 

 trees in company with herons, in Holland and other European resorts 

 in_ general they resort to willows, alders, and other low-growing trees. 

 Spoonbills fly well and strongly, with their necks stretched straight 

 out ; and they are also good swimmers. In searching for food they 

 use their beaks very much after the fashion of ducks. The only sound 

 uttered by those birds is that produced by clapping together the two 

 halves of the beak in the characteristic stork-fashion. The nests are 

 built of sticks, and the four eggs chalky white with indistinct brown 

 spots. 



The spoonbills, which have been divided into three genera, are 

 closely related to the ibises, but are generally regarded as representing 

 a family by themselves, the Plataleidse, characterised by the great 

 flatness and marked terminal expansion of the beak, and also b}' the 

 circumstance that in the dried skull the nostrils are less distinctly of 

 the slit-like type. 



The spoonbill is such an unmistakable bird that description is 

 really superfluous. It may be mentioned, however, that the legs, feet, 

 and beak are black, the latter tipped and barred with yellow ; that the 

 plumage, with the exception of the long drooping crest assumed 

 during the breeding-season, and a band across the lower part of the 

 neck, which are huffish, is wholly white ; and that the bare skin on the 

 throat is orange -yellow, and the eye red. The hen is somewhat 

 inferior to her partner in point of size, and has also a rather smaller 

 crest in the breeding-season. In young birds the eye is ashy gre}', 

 the shafts and tips of the quills are black, and there is no crest ; the 

 nestling is clothed in white down. The black tips to the quills in 



