WHITE SPOONBILL. 565 



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 de- 

 scribed. 



The Spoonbill is recorded as a British bird by Merrett, 

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

 as an accidental visiter to Scotland : he states having re- 

 ceived 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 H emery 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 Yar- 

 mouth, in April 1774. Spoonbills have since been killed 

 on many occasions, and but for the recent, and 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 visiters. Mr. 

 Thompson of Belfast was informed by Mr. Ball of Dublin, 

 that three Spoonbills were seen near Youghall in Ireland, 

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

 Eyton has noticed one that was killed at Aberystwith in 



