WHITE SPOONBILL. 239 



To Ireland the Spoonbill is a very irregular visitor, 

 principally to the southern districts ; occurrences being on 

 record in the counties of Cork, Kerry — where three spe- 

 cimens were obtained so early in the year as the month of 

 February — Waterford, Wexford, and Dublin ; also in the 

 north, in Antrim, and doubtfully in Donegal. 



In Scandinavia the Spoonbill is a rare straggler ; but in 

 Russia it has been obtained as far north as Archangel, and 

 it breeds in the latter country to the south of 56° N. lat. ; also, 

 sparingly, in some parts of Poland and Central Germany. 

 In spite of the drainage which almost annually restricts its 

 breeding area, it still nests in several localities in Holland, 

 where it usually arrives in April, leaving in September ; but 

 occasionally it has been taken there in the depth of winter. 

 In France it is now only known on passage, but in the time 

 of Belon it used to nest on trees in Brittany and Poitou. 

 It breeds in Spain, and is of general distribution on migra- 

 tion and in winter throughout the basin of the Mediterranean. 

 The valley of the Danube and Southern Russia afford it 

 suitable breeding-haunts ; in Asia Minor, Dickson and Ross 

 found it nesting freely on the river near Erzeroum in May ; 

 and its summer range stretches across the southern portions 

 of Siberia to the Amoor, Mongolia, Northern China, and 

 perhaps to Japan. In India, where it is generally distri- 

 buted, Mr. A. 0. Hume states that he is acquainted with at 

 least fifty of its breeding-places ; and Col. Legge found it 

 nesting in small numbers in the south-east of Ceylon. It 

 visits the Azores, Madeira, and the Canaries ; and it appears 

 to be resident throughout North Africa down to the Somali 

 coast, as Von Heuglin visited large breeding colonies in 

 June in the Dahalac Archipelago. In South Africa it is 

 replaced by Platalea tentdrostris ; and representative species 

 are found in south-eastern Asia and Australia. The Roseate 

 Spoonbill of America belongs to a different genus {Ajaja), 

 and presents some important structural variations from the 

 Old World type. 



Up to the end of the year 1882 the Spoonbill nested no 

 further from our shores than the Horster Meer, between 



