WHITE SPOONBILL. 567 



plumage. There is no yellow tint in any portion of the 

 bills of any of the specimens ; the colour being dark livid 

 with a shade of flesh-colour." 



Muller includes the Spoonbill among his birds of Den- 

 mark, and M, Nilsson says it is an occasional visiter to 

 Sweden. Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology, says, "it in- 

 habits the Faroe Isles ; and on the continent is sometimes 

 found in summer as high as West Bothnia and Lapland. 

 Inhabits also the temperate parts of Russia and Siberia, 

 both in flocks and solitary, frequenting the vast lakes of 

 the country. Is seen even beyond lake Baikal. Winters 

 in the south." I do not, however, find the Spoonbill in- 

 cluded in the more modern catalogues of the birds of Lap- 

 land, Norway, or the Faroe Islands. 



Like many of the wading birds with which it is allied, 

 the Spoonbill is a migratory species, quitting the north of 

 Europe, and more particularly Holland, which is its fa- 

 vourite summer resort, to pass the winter in the wanner 

 parts of Europe, and has been found as far south in Africa 

 as the Cape of Good Hope. It is found in Italy, where 

 it passes the winter in the salt marshes, or in flocks on the 

 sea coast. Pennant says that Aleppo is one of its winter 

 retreats. Messrs. Dickson and Ross found this bird at 

 Erzeroom in May, at the river, where it breeds ; several 

 nests are placed near each other, about the middle of the 

 river. They are made of reeds, bound together by weeds, 

 which are piled up a few inches above the water's edge. 

 Over this foundation dried reeds are placed in various di- 

 rections, to form the body of the nest, which is not lined 

 with anything, and is just large enough to allow one bird 

 to sit, and the other to stand beside it : we found four eggs 

 in each. The Spoonbill was also found by the Russian 

 Naturalists on the banks of the rivers, and in the marshes 



