598 ARDEIM. 



membrane. Forehead, lore, orbits, and chin, naked. Legs long, strong, 

 three toes in front, united as far as the second articulation by a membrane, 

 the marginal edge of which is deeply concave ; hind toe long. Wings 

 rather large ; the first quill-feather nearly as long as the second, which is 

 the longest in the wing. 



THE beak of the Spoonbill is one of those very singular 

 modifications of an organ which nature sometimes exhibits 

 as if to show the many diversities of form which can be 

 rendered applicable to one purpose ; for notwithstanding 

 the difference so conspicuous in this instrument, the food 

 of the Spoonbill is very similar to that of the Herons, 

 the Bitterns, and the Storks, and the bird itself is in 

 other respects very closely allied to the Waders already 

 described. 



The Spoonbill is recorded as a British bird by Merrett, 

 on the authority of Dr. Turner, and by Sir Robert Sib- 

 bald as an accidental visitor to Scotland : he states having 

 received it from Orkney. Sir Thomas Browne, who was 

 contemporary with Merrett and Sibbald, says, " The Platea 

 or Shrovelard build upon the tops of high trees. They 

 formerly built in the Hernery at Claxton and Rudham ; 

 now at Trimley in Suffolk. They come in March, and are 

 shot by fowlers, not for their meat, but their handsome- 

 ness ; remarkable in their white colour, copped crown, 

 and spoon, or spatule-like bill." Record is also made of 

 a flock of these birds which migrated into the marshes 

 near Yarmouth, in April, 1774. Spoonbills have since 

 been killed on many occasions, and but for the almost 

 universal practice of draining in this country, to bring fen 

 land into successful cultivation, these birds might still be 

 numbered among our constant summer visitors. Mr. 

 Thompson of Belfast was informed by Mr. Ball of Dublin 

 that three Spoonbills were seen near Youghal in Ireland, 

 in the autumn of 1829, and one of them was shot. Mr. 

 Eyton has noticed one that was killed at Aberystwith in 



