SPOONBILL 901 



{Zool. 1886, pp. 81 et seqq.) cites a case from the "Year-Book" of 14 

 Hen. VIII. (1523), wherein the Bishop of London (Cuthbert Tunstall) 

 maintained an action of trespass against a tenant at Fulham for 

 taking Herons and " Shovelars " that made their nests on the trees 

 there, and has also printed {Zool. 1877, p. 425) a document shewing 

 that "Shovelers" bred in certain woods in west Sussex in 1570. 

 In George Owen's Description of Fenbrokshire, written in 1602 

 (ed. 1892, p. 131), the "Shovler" was stated to breed "on highe 

 trees" in that county, and nearly sixty years later (circa 1662) Sir 

 Thomas Browne, in his Account of Birds found in Norfolk (JVorks, ed. 

 Wilkin, iv. pp. 315, 316), stated of the "Flatea or Shouelard" that it 

 formerly " built in the Hernerie at Claxton and Reedham, now at 

 Trimley in Suffolk." This last seems to be the latest known proof of 

 the breeding of the species in England ; but that it was in the fullest 

 sense of the word a " native " of England and Wales is thus incon- 

 testably shewn ; though for many years past it has only been a 

 more or less regular visitant, not seldom in considerable numbers, 

 which would doubtless, if allowed, once more make their home here ; 

 but its conspicuous appearance renders it an easy mark for the 

 gunner and the collector. What may have been the case on the 

 continent formerly is not known, except that, according to Belon, it 

 nested in his time (1555) in the borders of Britanny and Poitou; 

 but as regards north-western Europe it seems of late years to have 

 bred only in Holland, and there it has been deprived by drainage 

 of its favourite resorts, one after the other, so that it must shortly 

 become merely a stranger, except in Spain or the basin of the 

 Danube and other parts of south-eastern Europe. 



The Spoonbill ranges over the greater part of middle and 

 southern Asia, and breeds abundantly in India, as well as on some 

 of the islands in the Eed Sea, and seems to be resident throughout 

 Northern Africa. In Southern Africa its place is taken by an 

 allied species with red legs, P. cristata or tenuirostris, Avhich also 

 goes to Madagascar. Japan, Coi"ea and Eastern China possess 

 also a smaller species, P. minor, while a distinct one, P. intermedia, 

 is said to be found in New Guinea. Australia has two other species, 

 P. regia or melanorhynchus, with black bill and feet, and P. flavipes, 

 in which those parts are yellow. The very beautiful and wholly 

 different P. ajaja is the Roseate Spoonbill of America, and is the 

 only one found on that continent, the tropical or juxta- tropical 

 parts of which it inhabits. The rich pink, deepening in some parts 

 into crimson, of nearly all its plumage, together with the yellowish- 

 green of its bare head and its lake-coloured legs, sufficiently marks 

 this bird ; but all the other species are almost wholly clothed in 

 pure white, though the English has, when adult, a fine buff pectoral 

 band, and the spoon-shaped expanse of its bill is yellow, contrasting 

 with the black of the compressed and basal portion. Its legs are 



