66



Spoonbills.



Looking back some two hundred and fifty years, it is with a

feeling of curiosity that we remember that in June, 1663, the

botanical studies which John Ray was prosecuting with such vigour

took him and his pupil Willughby to Holland, where they found

Spoonbills breeding near a village called Sevenhuys, situated at four

leagues (about thirteen miles) from Leyden, not in marshes but as

they did in Norfolk, “ in great numbers on the top of high trees ”

(‘ Ornithology,’ p. 289). This settlement, from which the young

Spoonbill described by Willughby was probably taken, has long

since become extinct, for even in Pennant’s time the wood where

Willughby saw them breeding had been cut down (‘ British Zoology,’

ii, p. 634). At the present day this would have been of less con¬

sequence, for trees do not seem to be required, piled-up reeds being

preferred by European Spoonbills, which, like Herons, vary consider¬

ably in their habits. A somewhat fuller account of this visit to

Sevenhuys, and of the four species, including the “ Lepelaers,” as

Spoonbills were called in Dutch, found breeding there, is supplied by

Ray in his journal of ‘ Travels through the Low Countries ’ (second

edition, 1738, p. 33), one of the very few references to Natural

History to be discovered in that somewhat disappointing volume.


Allusion has already been made to the protection which our

ill-supported Society " still continues to afford to Spoonbills, a pro¬

tection of which this year twelve availed themselves. The first one

to be viewed on the mud-flats was rather early, appearing on April

7th, but Dr. Long tells me they come to Holland much earlier than

this. In all probability its presence was due to a strong west wind

(W., force 5) which had been blowing on the previous evening. It

was evidently contented with the society of Gulls and their muddy

surroundings, and it remained in the creeks, except for short absences

when they were covered up and it could not feed, until the 14th.

After an interval of six weeks, another turned up on June 2nd (W.,

2), and this was joined by three more on the 3rd (N., 2), all in fine

plumage, exhibiting white “ copped crownes,” as Sir Thomas Browne

would have said, in allusion to their pendent plumes. They were

tame enough to feed within fifty yards of the Watcher's houseboat,


* Breydon Wild Birds’ Protection Society, Hon. Sec. H. P. Frederick, Esq.,

Great Yarmouth.



