58 



SPOONBILLS SHOT IN SUFFOLK. 



Reprinted from " The Field" Newspaper, June 6th, 1863. 



I HOPE that J. M. will comply with the request of C. M. A. 

 (Newcastle-upon-Tyne), and give us all the particulars he can 

 respecting the birds he shot, more particularly as to the situation 

 on the coast in which they appeared, the time of day or night 

 when killed, and if previously observed in the same locality. In 

 the mean time, I am happy to communicate some particulars 

 respecting them which will probably be interesting to both your 

 correspondents. Through the kindness of Mr. Sayer, birdstuffer, 

 of Norwich, to whom J. M. had sent them for the purpose of 

 preservation, I had the opportunity of handling both birds in the 

 flesh, and subsequently of determining the sex in both cases by 

 careful dissection. Both birds were in full breeding plumage, 

 with a broad, buffy band across the upper part of the breast, and 

 a slight mixture of the same amongst the crest feathers. In one, 

 however, the buff tints were brighter, and the crest feathers 

 altogether longer and more developed, which led me, from merely 

 external appearances, and the fact of the two being killed to- 

 gether, to take them for male and female. The result of internal 

 inspection proved how necessaiy it is in all such cases to take 

 nothing for granted. Both birds were females, the one with the 

 finest plumage having a larger cluster of eggs, both as to size and 

 quantity, than the other, the biggest, perhaps, about the pro- 

 portion of a small hempseed ; but in neither case did the ovaries 

 exhibit the slightest signs of the birds having paired for the 

 season, and consequently the feathers on the breast showed none 

 of those nesting symptoms alluded to by C. M. A. I opened the 

 stomachs of both, and, excepting a few small pebbles, found them 

 perfectly empty ; but the birds themselves were in high condition 

 and very fat, both externally and internally, from which I con- 

 jectured that they had either been killed early in the morning 

 before breakfast, or immediately on their arrival after a long mi- 

 gratory flight, but on this point I hope J. M. will kindly 

 enlighten us. When I first saw them the naked skin of their 



