Family PLATALEIDiE. 



THE SPOONBILL. 

 Platalea leucorodia, Linriccus. 

 Plate 42. 



Although the Spoonbill at one time bred in various English counties, in- 

 cluding Norfolk, Suffolk, Sussex and Middlesex, as well as in Wales, it is 

 chiefly known at the present time as a Bird of Passage in spring and autumn 

 on the southern and eastern coasts, although it occurs as an autumn straggler 

 in other parts. Professor Newton has proved that it nested in Norfolk in the 

 reign of Edward I, and Mr. Harting in The Zoologist has shown that it also 

 bred at Fulham in 1523, and near Goodwood in 1570, whilst Sir Thomas Browne, 

 writing of it in 1688 in Norfolk, as quoted in Stevenson's Birds of Norfolk, says, 

 " The Platea or Shovelard, which build upon the tops of high trees. They formerly 

 built in the hernery at Claxton and Reedham ; now at Trimley, in Suffolk. They 

 come in March, and are shot by fowlers, not for their meat, but for the handsome- 

 ness of the same ; remarkable in their white colour, copped crown and spoon or 

 spatule like bill." The Spoonbill occasionally visits Scotland and Ireland, and is a 

 summer visitant to Central and Southern Europe, having also a wide range over 

 Asia and Africa. In winter it migrates from its more northern range to Central 

 Africa and India. The birds usually breed in colonies, and place their nests, 

 composed of a mass of dead reeds, on the mud among the thick cover of marsh 

 vegetation, sometimes low down on the branches of willows and alders, or often 

 in high trees. The eggs, generally four in number, are dull white, spotted and 

 marked with rust-colour. 



When seeking its food, which consists of small fishes, reptiles, molluscs, crusta- 

 ceans, &c., the Spoonbill frequents open marshes and mud-flats, probing the soft 

 ground with its peculiarly shaped bill. 



Lt.-Commander J. G. Millais has kindly supplied me with the following note 

 regarding this species in Africa. " I have observed a flock feeding in a semi-circle 

 in shallow water. They advanced moving their bills from side to side like a mower 

 cutting hay. The prey was some species of water insect." 



It appears to be a more or less silent bird, but Seebohm states that it makes "a 

 sharp snapping sound with its bill." 



The female has a smaller crest, but otherwise does not differ much from the 

 male. In winter the head plumes of both sexes show very little development, and 

 in the young bird these feathers are absent. 



