Descrip- 

 tion. 



WHITE SPOONBILL. Class IL 



1774*. They inhabit the continent of Europe. 

 In Mr. Rays time, they bred annually in a wood 

 at Sevenhui/s, not remote from Leyde?i: but the 

 wood is now destroyed, and these, with several 

 other species, which formerly frequented the 

 country, are at present become very rare. 



Mr. Joseph Spar shall of Yarmouth favored 

 me with the following very accurate description : 



" The length from the end of the beak to the 

 extremity of the middle toe forty inches; breadth 

 of the wings, extended, fifty-two inches; bill, 

 length of the upper mandible seven inches ; of 

 the lower six three-fourths ditto ; breadth of the 

 spoon, near the point, two inches ; ditto of the 

 nether mandible one inch seven-eighths ; breadth 

 of both, in the narrowest part, near the middle, 

 three-fourths of an inch ; a bright orange-color- 

 ed spot, about the breadth of a sixpence, just 

 above the point of the upper mandible, which is 

 a little hooked, or bent downward at its extre- 

 mity. At the angles of the bill, on each cheek, 

 a spot of a bright orange-color ; the skin be- 

 tween the sides of the lower mandible, and ex- 

 tending about three inches downward on the 

 throat or neck, covered with very fine down, 



* The Spoonbill has now and then been met with on the 

 coast of Devonshire, by Colonel Montagu, and once on the 

 Kentish cod^%iy by Mr. JBoys. J. L. _ ■ . ,s 



