WHITE SPOONBILL. 327 



daughter and I visited in June 1883, when -we found about 

 two hundred birds, but owing to the " meer " having been 

 drained, the part of it on which these birds nested was left 

 an island, and the last boat having been removed a few days 

 before our visit, the place was inaccessible. The birds 

 indeed flew around us, and I was much surprised that, 

 though they were very close to us, we did not hear them 

 utter a sound of any kind. As to seeing the nests, it was out 

 of the question, but, on our way home, we had a basin full of 

 eggs brought to us which had been taken on the island a few 

 days before. Mr. A. Crowley, writing of a visit to this " meer " 

 in May 1884, thus describes the nests : — ^They were placed 

 on the mud among the reeds, just about a foot or eighteen 

 inches high, and two feet in diameter at the bottom, tapering 

 to about one foot at the top, where there was a slight 

 depression, in which lay four eggs, or four young birds. In 

 the young there was a great difference in age and size, one 

 being a day or so old, and the most advanced nearly ready 

 to leave the nest {vide Yarrell's B. B. vol. iv. p. 240). The 

 Spoonbill feeds on fishes and crustaceans, &c. I had an 

 excellent opportunity, at the Zoological Gardens at Amster- 

 dam, of observing the action of this bird while feeding, 

 moving its whole body, with the head, from side to side, 

 with the bill to half its length immersed in water ; it appeared 

 to pass the water through it and to sift out any solid por- 

 tions it might meet with'. There were several together, and 

 they seemed very amicable. 



I will now mention its appearances in Sussex, and 

 first, from my own notes. A Spoonbill was shot at 

 Cuckmere Haven on October 15th, 1847. Mr. Ellman 

 informed me that three Spoonbills out of a flock of six 

 were shot near Hailsham, on the 3rd of October, 

 1850. On September 5th, 1856, one, an immature bird, 

 the biU being only 4J inches long from the forehead, was 



