192 
IBIDID-E. 
full of minute shrimps ; four eggs in the ovary were slightly 
enlarged, which tends to confirm what I have heard, that they 
are late breeders. 
I may as well here mention that Favier includes in his MS., 
without any description, another species of Ibis as having 
once been obtained by him near Tangier. He calls it ''Jbis 
calva ; " but it could hardly have been that South- African 
species, and was much more probably Geronticus comatus, 
Ehrenberg, the only information concerning which bird that 
I have any access to being given by Dr. Tristram in ' The 
Ibis ' for 1860 (p. 78), where he describes it as a mountain- 
haunting species. 
265. Platalea leucorodia, Linn. The White or Common 
Spoonbill. 
Moorish. Bou-ka-kaba [Favier). Spanish. Espatula, 
Paleton, Paleta, Patera, Pilato. 
" This species occurs near Tangier when on passage. They 
migrate north in March, April, and May, returning during 
October, and are never observed in winter.'^ — Favier. 
I saw many Spoonbills in April at the lake of Masharal- 
haddar, near Larache; and they then appeared to be on 
migration. The earliest occurrence of this species in spring 
near Gibraltar that I know of was one shot on the 9th of 
April, at the First River ; and the latest I saw was a single 
bird wading about the river Barbate, near Casa Vieja, on the 
20th of November. They were common in the marismas in 
flocks in May ; in some wet seasons they nest there, and also 
in the Soto Torero, near A^ejer, where, sad to relate, a 
Spaniard, in 1873, took upwards of seventy eggs early in May. 
He took most of these eggs into Gibraltar, to some 
collectors who were there at that time ; and next year he 
described to me the nests as merely made of a few sedges, and 
placed close (junto) together, each containing four eggs. The 
season of 1874 was very dry, and no Spoonbills appeared 
there; indeed, had it been wet, probably after being so 
robbed, the poor birds would not have nested again in that 
spot. What have not collectors to answer for ? 
