SPOONBILL. 183 



GRA LLA TORES. A RDEID/E- 



PLATE CLXXIV. 



SPOONBILL. 



PLATALEA LEUCORODIA. 



The Spoonbill, although now only an occasional visitant 

 in England during its periods of migration, was formerly a 

 regular summer visitant, breeding in society like our herons, 

 and it appears, also, associating with them in their breeding- 

 places. 



The last notice we find mentioned of the appearance of the 

 Spoonbill in England is in a note in the twefth number of 

 the " Zoologist," contributed by Edward Hearle Rodd, Esq., 

 who says, " On the evening of the 13th instant, a flock of 

 eleven white Spoonbills was seen to fly over Hayle, in the 

 western part of Cornwall ; they were at length observed to 

 alight in some marshy ground in the parish of Gwithian, on 

 the north coast, a little to the eastward of St. Ives. Seven of 

 them were shot, four of which I have had an opportunity of 

 examining ; and in their general appearance they display a 

 more adult cast of plumage than either of the two Cornish 

 examples which I have succeeded in obtaining before. The 

 plumage of those at present under notice is free from any 

 impurity in its whiteness, and there is a roseate blush observ- 

 able in some of the dorsal feathers towards their roots, this 

 tint being especially apparent in, and, as it were, radiating 

 from, the shafts of the feathers. Some of the specimens pos- 

 sess a much more extended bill than others, the excess 



