154 CATALOGUE OF THE BIRDS OF SUFFOLK. 



Months. — January, May, September. 



District. — 1. 



A very rare visitant to Suffolk, but it may possibly have 

 been more abundant in past times. Mr. Lubbock says that 

 less than a hundred years ago it was familiarly known to 

 the gunners of Lynn in Norfolk as the Black Curlew, but 

 it is now equally uncommon in that county (See Stev. B. 

 of N. ii., 191). Mr. J. 11. Gurney, jun. thinks it impossible 

 that this bird can have ever been common enough to have 

 had a local name (in litt.). 



Fam. Plataleid^e. 



Spoonbill, Platalea leucorodia (L.). 



S. and W. Cat. 41. — Spald. List, xxxvii. 



1. A flock migrated into the marshes near Yarmouth in April 1774 ; 

 Pennant gives a description furnished by Mr. Sparshall from a specimen 

 killed there at that time (Pennant's Br. Z. ii., 634-5, Lond. 1776); 

 several killed there in 1808 (Paget, Y. 8); occasionally met with there, 

 generally in the winter; one killed in May 1818 (S. and W. u. s.); one, 

 a male, occurred in June 1849 (J. H. Gurney in Z. 2499); an immature 

 female shot about Oct, 1864, in Mr. Lucas' Collection (Stev. B. of N. 

 ii., 188); two immature males shot May 4 1868, one in Mr. Stevenson's 

 Collection (T. E. Gunn in Z. 2nd S. 1295; Stev. B. of N. ii., 189); a 

 young bird killed in Oct. 1871 (J. H. Gurney, jun. in Z. 2nd S. 2871; 

 and 3rd S. iv., 514); and three males in June, 1878 (H. Stevenson in^. 

 3rd S. iii., 157). Two or three are generally shot every spring on 

 Breydon (Paget, Y. 8); one killed there May 1818 (Whitear's Dimy, 

 248); three more in June 1834 (Stev. B. of N. ii., 185, from Sir W. J. 

 Hooker); one from the same place June 18, 1850 (Bury Museum) ; one 

 shot July 6, I860; a pair in May 1862; two or three seen early in May 

 1863; a pair in mature plumage May 23, 1865 ; in Mr. Tomlinson's 

 Collection (Stev. B. of N. ii., 187, 188; see also T. E. Gunn in Nat. 

 for 1865 p. 108); a fine old male shot May 2, 1866; in Mr. Lucas' 

 Collection; another old male in 1868; about the same time as the pair 

 shot at Yarmouth on May 4; in Mr. Overend's Collection (Stev. B. ofN. 

 ii., 188-9); a fine specimen shot in Mav 1871 (H. Stevenson in Z. 2nd 

 S. 2830); two others in July of the same year (id, in Z. 2nd S. 2832); 

 two seen in May 1872 (id. and J. H. Gurney, jun. in Z. 2nd S. 3133); 

 four shot in May and June 1873 (H. Stevenson in Z. 2nd S. 3712); one 

 seen early in the winter of 1876 (id. in Z. 3rd S. i., 95) ; about eight seen 

 on or near Breydon in the spring and summer of 1880, one as late as the 



