goo SPIDER-CA TCHER—SPOONBILL 
ment (Proc. Zool. Soc. 1867, pp. 456, 458) the fourth great group of 
SCHIZOGNATHA, consisting of the birds now known as PENGUINS. 
SPIDER-CATCHER or -HUNTER, a book-name given to the 
larger forms of SUN-BIRD. . 
SPIKE-TAIL, a local name in North America for the PINTAIL. 
SPINAL CORD, see Nervous System (p. 622). 
SPINE-BILL, the name given in Australia to birds of the 
genus Acanthorhynchus, one of the Meliphagide (HONEY-EATER), and 
in New Zealand to the very peculiar Acanthidositta. 
SPINE-TAIL, as a prefix to Duck or Swirt signifies re- 
spectively birds of the genus Lrismatura, of wide distribution, and 
Acanthyllis, but used alone by Mr. Hudson (Argent. Orn. i. pp. 
174-188) for several species of Synallaxis (PICUCULE, p. 719). 
SPINK, a very common local name of the CHAFFINCH (p. 82). 
SPIRIT-DUCK, a name widely given by gunners to species of 
Clangula (GOLDEN-EYE, p. 368), but in Canada especially to C. 
albeola, from their instantly diving at the flash of a gun or the 
twang of a bow (¢/. Richardson, Faun. Bor.-Am. ii. p. 437). 
SPLEEN, a small pulpy mass of oval or worm-like shape, and 
generally of a bluish-red colour, which in most Birds rests upon and 
is loosely attached to the right side of the proventricular or 
glandular STOMACH; but the form, size, position and colour of 
this organ, which apparently plays an important part in the economy 
uf the blood-corpuscles, vary much in different birds. 
SPOONBILL. The bird now so called was formerly known in 
England as the POPELER, Shovelard or Shovelar, while that which 
used to bear the name of Spoonbill is the SHOVELER (p. 840) of 
modern days—the exchange of names having been effected about 
200 years ago, when the subject of the present notice, the Platalea 
leucorodia of ornithology, was doubtless better known than now, 
since it evidently was, from ancient documents, the constant con- 
comitant of Herons, and with them the law tried to protect it! The 
Calendar of Patent [olls of Edw. I. shews (p. 546) the issue in 
1300 of a commission to enquire who carried off the eyries of these 
birds (“poplorum”) at several places in Norfolk, and Mr. Harting 
1 Nothing shews better the futility of the ancient statutes for the protection 
of birds than the fact that in 1534 the taking of the eggs of Herons, Spoonbills 
(Shovelars), Cranes, Bitterns, and Bustards was visited by a heavy penalty, 
while there was none for destroying the parents in the breeding-season. All the 
birds just named, except the Heron, have passed away, while there is reason to 
think that some at least might have survived had the spirit of the Levitical 
law (Deut. xxii. 6) been followed. In 1894 an Act of Parliament was passed, 
reviving (at the will of a County Council, subject to the approval of a Secretary 
of State) the principle of the old law which had proved so insufficient. 
ay 
petty 
