THE SPOONBILL 309 



THE SPOONBILL 

 [F. C. R. JOURDAIN] 



Two centuries and a half ago the spoonbill still lingered in one 

 or two places as a breeding species in Great Britain, but its con- 

 spicuous plumage, and the ease with which it could be shot at the 

 nest, caused its extermination not long afterwards. It is a curious 

 fact that, as far as we know, all the old British colonies consisted of 

 tree-nesting birds, but at the present time all the European breeding 

 birds nest in marshes, on the ground or in low bushes, and the only 

 colonies of tree-nesting birds are to be found in the Indian Peninsula 

 and Ceylon. The former headquarters of this species in our islands 

 seem to have been in East Anglia. Professor Newton has shown, by 

 reference to the Calendar of Patent Rolls of Edward i., that in 1300 

 colonies existed in the woods of Whinburgh, Cantley, and Wormgay 

 in Norfolk. 1 Merrett also speaks of it as a British bird on Turner's 

 authority, and Sir Thomas Browne, who died in 1682, mentions " the 

 Platea or Shovelard " as having formerly built " in the Hernery at 

 Claxton and Rudham [Reedham] ; now at Trimley in Suffolk." Pos- 

 sibly the young bird taken from the nest which Willughby describes 

 came from this very colony. 2 Other records of former nesting have 

 been brought to light by Mr. J. E. Harting from Sussex : a MS. survey 

 of some manors belonging to the Duke of Norfolk in that county, at 

 East Dene, near Goodwood, made in 1570, containing the statement 

 that " in the woods called the Weestwood and the Haselette, Shovelers 

 and Herons have lately breed [sic], and some JShovelers breed there this 

 yeere." 3 The same writer has also adduced evidence that, in the time 

 of Henry vni., they built in the heronry which then existed in the 



1 See Trans. Norfolk and Norwich Nat. Soc., vi., 1896, p. 158. 



4 Willughby also visited one of the Dutch breeding-places in company with John Ray. 



3 Zoologist, 1877, p. 425. 



VOL,. IV. 2 R 



