WHITE SPOONBILL. 185 
was taken from a freshly killed specimen, sent him from 
Yarmouth by the late Mr. Joseph Sparshall, states in 
the “Appendix” to his “ British Zoology” that “a 
flock of these birds migrated into the marshes, near 
Yarmouth, in Norfolk, in April, 1774,” but since that 
time, although an annual visitant to our shores, on its 
migratory passage, it has appeared only in pairs, or at 
most three or four at one time. According to Messrs. 
Sheppard and Whitear, “a pair were seen at Cromer, 
in June, 1818; and one was killed at Yarmouth in the 
month of May of the same year.” In 1829, Mr. Hunt 
remarks in his list, “‘ In the course of the last five or six 
years, seven or eight of these birds have been killed 
at Caister and Burgh, in the neighbourhood of Yar- 
mouth, one of which is in the Norwich Museum* and 
another in the possession of Mr. J. J. Gurney.” Mr. 
Selby, also, in his “ British Ornithology,” states that 
when in London, in May, 1830, he obtained a male and 
female in fine adult plumage from Norfolk, this recently 
killed male being the one represented of the size of life 
in his work. 
In Sir William Hooker’s MS. one is said to have 
been taken alive on Salthouse broad, May 21st, 1831; 
three more on Breydon, in June, 1834; and an adult 
‘bird in the Norwich Museum, is stated to have been 
Jalled at Salthouse, in 1838. Mr. J. H. Gurney’s collec- 
tion contains three spoonbills in one case, two of which, 
in immature plumage, were shot together near Yar- 
mouth; and the third, an adult male, was purchased 
in the Norwich Market prior to 1846, being the one 
referred to by Messrs. Gurney and Fisher in the 
* Probably the specimen (No. 213b) still preserved, as a 
skeleton, and marked “ Adult, Norfolk.” 
+ No. 213 in the Museum collection, marked “ Male adult, 
September, 1888.” 
2B 
