ee 
A Saew Were 
52 GRALLATORES. PLATALHA. SpooNnBILL. 
November 1804, and the second in March 1807. Since that 
period other individuals have been obtained; amongst these, 
two recorded in the third volume of the Zoological Journal, 
as killed in Lincolnshire; and, when in London in May 
Aciled. ntay, 1830, I obtained a male and female in fine adult plumage 
% Laie outh 
‘ tay /§3L, 
Nest, &c. 
from Norfolk. From the time of year at which these birds 
were killed, it is not improbable (and the conjecture may be 
hazarded) that they would have remained to breed in the 
district they had selected ; and, though my collection has 
profited by their capture, I must still regret that they were 
not allowed to remain in security. This species is pretty 
generally dispersed upon the Continent, and in no country is 
more plentiful than in Holland, where it comes as a summer 
periodical visitant, and retires for warmer climates in Sep- 
tember, frequently migrating in company with the stork.— 
If trees occur in the neighbourhood of the haunts of the 
Spoonbill, it builds on them like the Heron, and other kinds 
of Ardeada ; but if there be none, it then makes its nest in 
the rushes or reeds of the marshes or lakes to which it re- 
sorts, It lays from two to four eggs, generally pure white, 
but sometimes marked with spots of reddish-brown. In the 
young state of the bird the bill is soft and flexible, covered 
with a thin skin, and shewing none of the rugosity or trans- 
verse furrows that distinguish that part in maturity. The 
food of the Spoonbill consists of the fry of fish, aquatic 
worms, reptiles, insects, and the roots of certain weeds and 
grasses. Its flesh is said to be in flavour nearly like that of 
the goose, without any fishy or unpleasant taste. In its ana- 
tomy it shews an affinity to the Cranes in the form of the 
windpipe, which, previous to entering the thorax, undergoes 
a double flexure to the extent of about two inches, and forms 
a convolution similar to the figure 8. The flexures touch, 
but do not cross each other, the points of contact being uni- 
ted by fine membranes. This double flexure, according to 
Wit.ovensy and TEMMINcK, was supposed peculiar to the 
males ; but Monracu disproves that idea, as the specimen 
