ARDEIDA. 365 
Stoke St. Gregory, in the November of the previous 
year. ‘There is the beak and skull of another speci- 
men in the Museum at Taunton: this was shot on 
Curry Moor, but there is no date mentioned. This 
bird has frequently occurred in the neighbouring 
county of Devon, and also, but not so often, in Dor- 
setshire. It is a migratory species, going North in 
summer to breed and returning South for the winter. 
The greater number of specimens recorded as having 
occurred in England have been in the spring and 
autumn, when the birds are on the move. 
The food of the Spoonbill consists of small rep- 
tiles, small fish,* Mollusca, aquatic insects, shrimps 
and sand-hoppers: Meyer adds grasses and the roots 
of water-plants to the list of food. It is easily kept 
in confinement, and may then be fed upon any sort 
of offal. 
The place chosen for the nest seems to be very 
various. Yarrell says in some countries high trees 
are chosen, and when this is the case the birds 
associate together, something after the manner of 
Herons; where no trees are to be found the nest 
is placed amongst reeds or rushes, and is some- 
times even built floating on the water: in whatever 
* Three or four sticklebacks were found in the throat, 
and the remains of others, mixed with sand and silt, in the 
gizzard, of one shot in Norfolk in May.—‘ Zoologist’ for 
1866 (Second Series, p. 264). 
213 
