48 



PLATALEID^E 



except on the flats of Cardigan Bay and in Pembrokeshire, it 

 is seldom recorded from the west side of Great Britain. Prof. 

 Salter, in his ' Birds of Aberystwith,' mentions that fourteen 

 Spoonbills were seen on the river Dovey on May 16th, 

 1893. In the southern counties the Spoonbill appears at 

 irregular intervals. One was shot in Surrey on November 

 26th, 1901 (Gordon Dalgliesh, 'Zoologist,' 1902), none 

 having been recorded from that county since 1862 (Bucknill, 

 ibid., p. 306). On September 25th, 1902, another was shot 

 in Sussex (N. F. Ticehurst, ' Zoologist,' 1903). 



FIG. 10. SPOONBILL. 



Few Spoonbills wander to Scotland. Mr. Harting men- 

 tions a flock of ten which visited the Bay of Kirkwall in 

 the Orkneys in October, 1859 ; six were shot. Specimens 

 have also been procured from the Shetlands and the Inner 

 Hebrides (Saunders). To Ireland this species is a rare and 

 uncertain visitor, appearing chiefly in autumn and winter. 

 It has been recorded about thirty-three times, aud most 

 often from the south. The first specimen, however, was 

 taken near Belfast, about the beginning of the last century 

 (Thompson). On December 16th, 1890, one was obtained 

 in the co. Galway, while a specimen procured in the co. 



