WHITE SPOONBILL. 327 



daughter and I visited in June 1883, when we found about 

 two hundred birds, but owing to the " meer " having been 

 drained, the part of it on which these birds nested was left 

 an island, and the last boat having been removed a few days 

 before our visit, the place was inaccessible. The birds 

 indeed flew around us, and I was much surprised that, 

 though they were very close to us, we did not hear them 

 utter a sound of any kind. As to seeing the nests, it was out 

 of the question, but, on our way home, we had a basin full of 

 eggs brought to us which had been taken on the island a few 

 days before. Mr. A. Crowley, writing of a visit to this " meer " 

 in May 1884, thus describes the nests : — They were placed 

 on the mud among the reeds, just about a foot or eighteen 

 inches high, and two feet in diameter at the bottom, tapering 

 to about one foot at the top, where there was a slight 

 depression, in which lay four eggs, or four young birds. In 

 the young there was a great difference in age and size, one 

 being a day or so old, and the most advanced nearly ready 

 to leave the nest {vide YarrelFs B. B. vol. iv. p. 240). The 

 Spoonbill feeds on fishes and crustaceans, &c. I had an 

 excellent opportunity, at the Zoological Gardens at Amster- 

 dam, of observing the action of this bird while feeding, 

 moving its whole body, with the head, from side to side, 

 with the bill to half its length immersed in water ; it appeared 

 to pass the water through it and to sift out any solid por- 

 tions it might meet with. There were several together, and 

 they seemed very amicable. 



I will now mention its appearances in Sussex, and 

 first, from my own notes. A Spoonbill was shot at 

 Cuckmere Haven on October 15th, 1847. Mr. Ellman 

 informed me that three Spoonbills out of a flock of six 

 were shot near Hailsham, on the 3rd of October, 

 1850. On September 5th, 1856, one, an immature bird, 

 the bill being only 4^ inches long from the forehead, was 



