316 THE SPOONBILL 



Schenk estimates the breeding stock at about one thousand pairs. 1 

 Here many of the nests are built on the submerged branches of 

 willows, and vary much in appearance, some being huge structures 

 four feet above the water-level, while others are only just clear of 

 it. Hume describes some of the Indian colonies as varying in 

 size, some being quite small and others enormous, but almost always 

 close to where some allied species, notably the shell-ibis, was breed- 

 ing. At most of these Indian stations the nests are built in big trees, 

 and are substantial platforms of sticks, two or three feet in diameter, 

 and from three inches to nearly a foot in depth. 



The young are said to leave the nest after a stay of about three 

 weeks, which seems rather a low estimate ; and when they are fledged, 

 both old and young are apt to wander far afield. At such times they 

 are to be met with on estuaries and mud-flats, usually in small parties, 

 for they are pre-eminently sociable birds, and always prefer to travel 

 and feed in company. When feeding they generally advance in a line, 

 with the bill immersed, working from side to side with their bills and 

 swinging their bodies with a corresponding motion which Lord Lilford 

 compares to the rhythmic swing of mowers in a hayfield. Meantime 

 the broad spoon-shaped mandibles sift the soft mud as a duck does. 



The Dutch birds leave for the south during September, and recross 

 the Straits of Gibraltar in October, only an occasional straggler remain- 

 ing till November, and winter in Tropical Africa. 



1 Cf. Aquila, 1908, vol. xv. pp. 245-258. 



