PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 307 



wintering in Africa and occurring casually on the Atlantic Islands and north to 

 Scandinavia and North Russia. [F. c. R. jr.] 



3. Migration. Formerly breeding in parts of the British Isles, the spoonbill 

 is now only a " passage-migrant in Norfolk and Kent, vagrant elsewhere " : a few 

 annually visit the former of these two favoured counties between April and June, 

 and between August and October, and occasionally in July, while in 1908 it was 

 recorded as early as 31st March and as late as 21st November : in Kent it may 

 also be of annual occurrence, and is observed mainly in spring and near the coast 

 (cf. Hartert, Jourdain, Ticehurst, and Witherby, Hand-List of British Birds, 1912, 

 p. 121 ; Witherby and Ticehurst, British Birds, vol. i. p. 450 ; Gurney, Zoologist, 1909 ; 

 and Ticehurst, B. of Kent, 1909, p. 326). Apart from Norfolk, Kent, and the 

 immediately adjacent districts, the spoonbill is most frequently met with along the 

 south coast of England, and especially in Cornwall ; it is of not infrequent occurrence 

 as a vagrant in Pembroke and Cardigan, but otherwise rare on the west of England 

 and Wales (cf. Saunders, III Man. Brit. B., 2nd ed., 1899, p. 393). In Yorkshire it 

 is only a rare casual (cf. Nelson, B. of Yorks., 1907, p. 406). In Scotland it is of very 

 rare occurrence, but it has been recorded even from the Shetland Islands and the 

 Inner Hebrides, and more recently from the Outer Hebrides (cf. Saunders, loc. cit. ; 

 and Harvie-Brown, Annals Scot. Nat. Hist., 1902, p. 204). In Ireland it is 

 also very rare, and most of the records come from the southern maritime counties, 

 especially from Co. Cork ; autumn and whiter is the usual season, and the maximum 

 number of records is for November (cf. Ussher and Warren, B. of Ireland, 1900, p. 

 172). British records usually refer to solitary individuals or to very small parties ; 

 companies of up to six in number have been observed in Kent (cf. Ticehurst, loc. cit.). 

 For comparison of dates we may mention that in Holland the spoonbill is still a 

 breeding summer visitor, arriving in April and leaving in September or early October 

 (cf. Saunders, loc. cit.). [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. From what has been recorded of the extinct British 

 race, the usual breeding-place was in lofty trees, and generally together with herons. 

 At the present time almost all European spoonbills nest among reeds growing in 

 water, or low bushes, but in India trees are still resorted to at times for breeding 

 purposes. Possibly it was the protection afforded to the heronries which enabled 

 the spoonbills to survive for a time. When placed in a tree the nest is carelessly 

 built of sticks and twigs, but in marshes it is almost entirely composed of dead 

 reeds, which are piled up till they reach a foot or two above the surface of the 

 water. (PI. LXX.) Probably both sexes share in the construction of the nest. The 



