BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 155 



not forward it to me in that state, as, unless it had 

 been wounded by the two shots, I have no doubt I 

 should have been able to keep it alive and observe 

 its habits and changes of plumage as it advanced 

 towards maturity. 



The Little Bittern is included in Professor 

 Ansted's list, and marked as occurring in Guernsey. 

 There is no specimen in the Museum. 



134. SPOONBILL. Platalea le-ucorodia, Linnaeus. 

 French, " Spatule blanche." An occasional but 

 by no means common visitant to the Channel 

 Islands. I have been able to hear of but very few 

 instances of its occurrence or capture of late years ; 

 Mr. Couch, however, writes me, in a letter dated 

 November, 1873, that a Spoonbill was brought to 

 him to stuff. In all probability this is the same 

 bird recorded by Mr. Broughton in the ' Field ' for 

 October 25th, 1873, and in the ' Zoologist ' for 

 January, 1874. This is the only very recent speci- 

 men I have been able to trace ; but Mr. Broughton 

 in his note mentions the occurrence of one about 

 twenty years before ; and Mrs. Jago, who, when 

 she was Miss Cumber, did a good deal of bird- 

 stuffing in Guernsey, told me she had stuffed a 

 Spoonbill for the Museum about twenty years ago. 

 This is probably the other one mentioned by Mr. 

 Broughton, and he may have seen it in the Museum; 

 it is not there, however, now either having become 



