514 BRITISH BIRDS. 



PLATALEA LEUCORODIA. 



SPOONBILL. 



(PLATE 37.) 



Platea platea, Briss. Om. v. p. 352 (1760). 



Platalea leucorodia, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 231 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



Latham, Temminck, Naumann, Bonaparte, Dealand Sf Gerbe, Dresser, &c. 

 Platea leucopodius, Gmel. Reise Russl. p. 163 (1770). 



Platea leucorodia (Linn.), Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamtn. fyc. Brit. Mus. p. 33 (1816). 

 Platalea nivea, Cuv. Regne An. i. p. 482 (1817). 

 Platalea pyrrhops, Hodgs. Gray's Zool. Miscell. p. 86 (1844). 

 Platalea major, Temm. fy Schl. Faun. Japan, p. 119, pi. Ixxv. (1847). 



The Spoonbill was formerly a regular summer visitor to this country, 

 and bred in the marshes of Norfolk and Suffolk. They were exterminated 

 at the close of the 17th century. The last record of their breeding in 

 England is to be found in Sir Thomas Browne's f Notes on the Birds of 

 Norfolk/ who describes them as breeding about 1670 in Trimley in Suffolk, 

 and as formerly having bred at Claxton near Norwich and Reedham near 

 Yarmouth in Norfolk (Stevenson, ' Birds of Norfolk/ ii. p. 184) . In spite 

 of the persecution which caused them to cease to breed in this country two 

 hundred years ago, the hereditary instinct which leads these birds to migrate 

 to our country in spring does not appear to have entirely died out, and 

 scarcely a year passes without a few birds being seen, most of which, the 

 Birds' Protection Act notwithstanding, fall victims to the insatiable desire 

 to acquire specimens of rare British birds. In other parts of the British 

 Islands the Spoonbill is principally known as an occasional straggler in 

 autumn, sometimes appearing in small flocks. We may therefore regard 

 the Spoonbill as an occasional straggler on migration to the whole of 

 the British Islands, including the Channel Islands, the Hebrides, the 

 Orkneys, and Shetland. 



The Spoonbill, like most of its Herodian allies, has a most extensive 

 range, reaching from the Atlantic to the Pacific ; but owing to the rapid 

 increase of population its breeding-colonies are few and far between. It 

 breeds in Spain, Holland, the valley of the Danube, the delta of the 

 Volga, and in the country north of the Aral Sea. It passes through 

 France and Germany on migration, and is a rare straggler to the south of 

 the Scandinavian peninsula. It is occasionally found in the Baltic 

 Provinces ; and Hencke records a flock of eight Spoonbills appearing in 

 December near Archangel. Finsch did not observe it in West Siberia 



