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ON THE FORMER NESTING OF THE SPOONBILL 
IN THE COUNTY OF SUSSEX. 
By tHE EDIrTor. 
ALTHOUGH the Spoonbill, Platalea leucorodia, is generally 
classed amongst the rarer British birds, instances of its occurrence 
in this country in spring and autumn are not infrequent. This is 
more particularly the case in the eastern and south-eastern counties 
of England, where scarcely a year elapses without several of these 
birds being seen, and most of them unfortunately shot. Occasionally 
they arrive in small flocks, but are more often observed singly or 
in pairs.* This return year by year, with a certain amount of 
regularity, seems to indicate a lingering inherited impulse to revisit 
the spots where in former days their ancestors not only reared 
their young in safety, but were protected the while by Act of 
Parliament. 
Records, however, of the former nesting of the Spoonbill in this 
country are extremely rare, and putting aside certain old Statutes 
which provided for the protection of this species amongst others 
during the breeding season, and from which it is therefore to be 
inferred that the bird once nested here, I have not until recently 
met with any direct evidence on the subject, except that of Sir 
Thomas Browne, the celebrated physician of Charles the Second’s 
day. 
The testimony of this trustworthy observer on the subject is 
very clear. In his ‘Account of Birds found in Norfolk,’ written 
about the year 1668,+ he particularly mentions, “ The Platea or 
Shovelard which build upon the tops of high trees,” and says, 
“They have formerly built in the Hernery at Claxton and Reed- 
ham; now at Trimley, in Suffolk. ‘They come in March, and are 
shot by fowlers, not for their meat, but the handsomeness of the 
same; remarkable in their white colour, copped crown, and spoon 
or spatule-like bill.” 
* In 1850 half-a-dozen Spoonbills arrived in Sandwich Haven during the first 
week in June, and afterwards betook themselves to Wingham Marshes, where several 
were eventually shot. (See ‘ Zoologist,’ 1850, p. 2853.) The following year, on the 
3rd October, three were killed out of a flock of six which had alighted in a field near 
Hailsham. (See ‘ Zoologist,’ 1851, p. 3278.) 
+ See Sir Thomas Browne’s Works. Ed. Wilkin, vol. iv. pp. 313—824. 
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