514 BRITISH BIRDS. 
PLATALEA LEUCORODIA. 
SPOONBILL. 
(Prats 37.) 
Platea platea, Briss. Orn. v. p. 352 (1760). 
Pilatalea leucorodia, Linn. Syst. Nat. i, p. 281 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum— 
Latham, Temminck, Naumann, Bonaparte, Degland § Gerbe, Dresser, Xe. 
Platea leucopodius, Gmel. Reise Russi. p. 163 (1770). 
Platea leucorodia (Linn.), Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. Se. Brit. Mus. p. 33 (1816). 
Platalea nivea, Cuv. Regne An. i. p. 482 (1817). 
Platalea pyrrhops, Hodgs. Gray's Zool. Miscell. p. 86 (1844). 
Platalea major, Temm. § Schl. Faun. Japon. p. 119, pl. Ixxy. (1847). 
The Spoonbill was formerly a regular summer visitor to this country, 
and bred in the marshes of Norfolk and Suffolk. They were exterminated 
at the close of the 17th century. The last record of their breeding in 
England is to be found in Sir Thomas Browne’s ‘ Notes on the Birds of 
Norfolk, who describes them as breeding about 1670 in Trimley in Suffolk, 
and as formerly having bred at Claxton near Norwich and Reedham near 
Yarmouth in Norfolk (Stevenson, ‘ Birds of Norfolk,’ il. p. 184). In spite 
of the persecution which caused them to cease to breed in this country two 
hundred years ago, the hereditary instinct which leads these birds to migrate 
to our country in spring does not appear to have entirely died out, and 
scarcely a year passes without a few birds being seen, most of which, the 
Birds’ Protection Act notwithstanding, fall victims to the insatiable desire 
to acquire specimens of rare British birds. In other parts of the British 
- Islands the Spoonbill is principally known as an occasional straggler in 
autumn, sometimes appearing in small flocks. We may therefore regard 
the Spoonbill as an occasional stragyler on migration to the whole of 
the British Islands, including the Channel Islands, the Hebrides, the 
Orkneys, and Shetland. 
The Spoonbill, like most of its Herodian allies, has a most extensive 
range, reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific; but owing to the rapid 
increase of population its breeding-colonies are few and far between. It 
breeds in Spain, Holland, the valley of the Danube, the delta of the 
Volga, and in the country north of the Aral Sea. It passes through 
France and Germany on migration, and is a rare straggler to the south of 
the Scandinavian peninsula. It is occasionally found in the Baltic 
Provinces; and Hencke records a flock of eight Spoonbills appearing in 
December near Archangel. Finsch did not observe it in West Siberia 
