222 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds 



I believe from the same spot, but I have not been able to discover 

 its whereabouts. 



Platalea Leucorodia. " Spoonbill." This bird, so unmistakable 

 both from the whiteness of its plumage and the peculiar shape of 

 its bill, is not of such quite rare occurrence amongst us as would be 

 at first sight supposed. Until lately few years passed without some 

 specimens being observed at the mouth of the Avon, or on the mud 

 flats of the Solent ; and it may be hoped that the recent restrictions 

 of the Birds Preservation Act may tell considerably in its favour. 

 One was killed at Seaton, on the banks of the Axe, by a coast- 

 guardsman, in 1870, and is now in the collection of Mr. E. Baker, 

 of Mere. At Christchurch Hart has not unfrequently met with 

 them. Two specimens were killed there in 1857 ; another in 1863 ; 

 a third, in the same neighbourhood, in October, 1864 ; a fourth on 

 January 3rd, 1869. Another very good specimen haunted the Solent 

 and the harbour for a considerable period in 1876, and was at last 

 shot by Hart himself, near Hurst Castle, in the August month. 

 This specimen is now in his Museum. Since that Hart has noticed 

 three birds in the harbour, which escaped the hands of the gunners; 

 and in 1878 he got within twenty yards of another bird of the 

 same species, which also went away unmolested. 



Ibis Falcinellus. " Glossy Ibis." This bird, like the former, has 

 not been unfrequently procured from the mud flats of Poole and 

 Christchurch harbours, which in spring and autumn are so admirably 

 adapted for arresting for a time many of the water birds in their 

 migratorial flights. The plumage of this bird is most effective, 

 reflecting, as it does, one mass of metallic lustre, of dark green, 

 purple, and deep red. I remember a beautiful specimen of this bird 

 being shot, when I was a boy, in the peat moors of Shapwick, 

 which lie between Glastonbury and Bridgewater, about the year 

 1850. A pair of these birds were also seen flying over the town of 

 Odiham, near Basingstoke, in 1881, by a Mr. Forster, a photographer. 

 One of these birds was shot, a few days after, on September 24th, 

 by an under-gamekeeper of Sir H. Mildmay's, at the lake in Dog- 

 mersfield Park, while another was killed, a few days later, in Norfolk, 

 possibly the remaining specimen. They have been frequently 



