THE WHITE SPOONBILL 133 



It seems very strange that birds should mob rare 

 visitors in the way they do. Jealousy in the matter 

 of their food can hardly be the cause for such perse- 

 cution, as there is enough on Breydon flats, when 

 the tide is out, to feed flocks of Spoonbills in 

 addition to the birds which now feed there. I do 

 not think it would be difficult to establish a colony 

 of Spoonbills. And talking of this jealousy, I re- 

 member a Gannet which had somehow got inland 

 pitching down on a large mill-pond near me, and 

 no sooner was .he settled than the swans, ducks, 

 coots, and moorhens made a regular rush for him. 

 But they did not have things all their own way, for 

 the Gannet fought well, and made some of their 

 feathers fly before they succeeded in driving 

 him off. 



THE WHITE SPOONBILL. 



{Platalea leucorodia. ) 



Male. — The bill black, variegated with yellow or 

 grey ; a considerable portion of the expanded part of 

 the upper mandible yellow ; iris red. The throat, 

 bare, yellow ; crest feathers tinged with yellow, with 

 the exception of a buff-coloured patch on the lower 

 part of the neck and fore-part of the breast. The 

 rest of the plumage pure white, tinged at times with 

 pink ; legs and feet dusky. Length, from bill to tail, 

 thirty-two inches. 



Female. — Similar to male, but the crest is smaller, 

 and there is less buff on the breast. 



