goo SPIDER-CATCHER—SPOONBILL 



ment {Froc. Zool. Soc. 1867, pp. 456, 458) the fourth great group of 

 ScHizoGNATH^, consisting of the birds now known as Penguins. 



SPIDEE-CATCHER or -HUNTER, a book-name given to the 

 lai-ger forms of SUN-BIRD. 



SPIKE-TAIL, a local name in North America for the Pintail. 



SPINAL CORD, see Nervous System (p. 622). 



SPINE-BILL, the name given in Australia to birds of the 

 genus AcanthorhyncJms, one of the Meliphagidee (Honey-eater), and 

 in New Zealand to the very peculiar Acanthidositta. 



SPINE-TAIL, as a prefix to DucK or Swift signifies re- 

 spectively birds of the genus Erismatura, of wide distribution, and 

 Acanthyllis, but used alone by Mr. Hudson {Argent. Orn. i. pp. 

 174-188) for several species of Synallaxis (PicucULE, p. 719). 



SPINK, a very common local name of the Chaffinch (p. 82). 



SPIRIT-DUCK, a name widely given by gunners to species of 

 Clangula (Golden-eye, p. 368), but in Canada especially to C. 

 albeola, from their instantly diving at the flash of a gun or the 

 twang of a bow (cf. Richardson, Faun. Bor.-Am. ii. p. 437). 



SPLEEN, a small pulpy mass of oval or worm-like shape, and 

 generally of a bluish-red colour, which in most Birds rests upon and 

 is loosely attached to the right side of the proventricular or 

 glandular STOMACH; but the form, size, position and colour of 

 this organ, which apparently plays an important part in the economy 

 of the blood-corpuscles, vary much in different birds. 



SPOONBILL. The bird now so called was formerly known in 

 England as the POPELER, Shovelard or Shovelar, while that which 

 used to bear the name of Spoonbill is the Shoveler (p. 840) of 

 modern days — the exchange of names having been eff"ected about 

 200 years ago, when the subject of the present notice, the Platalea 

 leucorodia of ornithology, was doubtless better known than now, 

 since it evidently was, from ancient documents, the constant con- 

 comitant of Herons, and with them the law tried to protect it.^ The 

 Calendar of Patent Piolls of Edw. I. shews (p. 546) the issue in 

 1300 of a commission to enquire who carried off" the eyries of these 

 birds {" poplorum") at several places in Norfolk, and Mr. Harting 



^ Nothing shews better the futility of the ancient statutes for the protection 

 of birds than the fact that in 1534 the taking of the eggs of Herons, Spoonbills 

 (Shovelars), Cranes, Bitterns, and Bustards was visited by a heavy penalty, 

 while there was none for destroying the parents in the breeding-season. All the 

 birds just named, except the Heron, have passed away, while there is reason to 

 think that some at least might have survived had the spirit of the Levitical 

 law (Deut. xxii. 6) been followed. In 1894 an Act of Parliament was passed, 

 reviving (at the will of a County Council, subject to the approval of a Secretary 

 of State) the principle of the old law which had proved so insufficient. 



