THIRD SERIES. 
Vou. X.] MARCH, 1886. [No. 111. 
ON THE FORMER NESTING OF THE SPOONBILL 
IN MIDDLESEX. 
By tHE Eprror. 
Untin a very few years ago ornithologists were not aware of 
more than one record of the former nesting of the Spoonbill 
(Platalea leucorodia) in this country. ' This was the instance 
noticed by Sir Thomas Browne, who, writing in 1668 on ‘ Birds 
found in Norfolk,’ mentions the Platea or Shovelard as having 
formerly built in the Hernery at Claxton and Reedham, and in 
his day at Trimley in Suffolk.* 
In ‘ The Zoologist’ for October, 1877 (pp. 425-429) I directed 
attention to the fact that a second and earlier record of the kind 
was to be found in a MS. Survey of certain manors in Sussex 
belonging to the Duke of Norfolk, taken ‘“‘ by commandment ”’ of 
the Duke in 1570; the Spoonbills or Shovelers (as they are 
termed in this Survey) being described as breeding in that year 
with Herons in the woods called the Westwood and the Haselette 
at East Dean, near Goodwood. 
I have now the pleasure of supplying some information 
respecting another breeding-place of the ‘‘ Shoveler”’ hitherto 
overlooked by naturalists, this time in Middlesex, and so near to 
the metropolis as the Bishop of London’s park at Fulham. 
The evidence of this interesting fact is to be found in the 
Year Book of 14 Hen. VIII., fol. 1, wherein is contained a report 
* Sir T. Browne’s Works. Ed. Wilkin, vol. iv., pp. 318-324. 
ZOOLOGIST.—MARCH, 1886. H 
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