176 c. and h. Candler’s notes from the Netherlands. 
though to-day it breeds only in a single locality ; and we propose 
in the following pages, first, to trace very roughly the gradual 
retreat of the species before the advance of drainage and cultivation, 
and then to add a few words descriptive of our own visit to its 
last stronghold in the North of Europe. 
In the year 1673 John Ray published an account of a journey 
through the Low Countries, which he made in the company of his 
friends Francis Willughby, the ornithologist, Philip Skipton, and 
Nathanael Bacon;* chiefly, he tells us, with the view of studying 
the flora of the region visited. In this work occurs a quaint and 
interesting reference to the breeding of the Spoonbill : — 
“Before we left Leyden we made a by-journey to Sevenkuys, a village 
about four leagues distant, to see a remarkable grove, where in time of ) r ear 
several sorts of wild-fowl build and breed. Wo observed there in great 
numbers (1) Scholfers, i.e., Gracculi palmipedes, in England we call them 
Shags, they are very like to Cormorants, only less. We were much 
surprised to see them, being a whole-footed bird, alight and build upon trees. 
(2) Lepelaers, called by Gesner Plateoe sive Pelicani, we may call them in 
English Spoonbills. (3) Quacks or Ardece cinerece minores, the Germans 
call this bird the Night-Raven, because it makes a noise in the night. Node 
clamat voce absona tanquam vomituriensis (Gesner). (4) Regers or Herons. 
Each sort of fowl hath its several quarter. When the young are ripe, they 
who farm the grove, with an iron hook fastened to the end of a long pole 
lay hold on the bough on which the nest is built, and shake the young ones 
out, and sometimes nest and all down to the ground. Besides the fore- 
mentioned birds there build also iu this wood Ravens, Wood-Pigeons, and 
Turtle-Doves. This place is rented for 3000 gilders per annum, of the 
Baron of Pelemberg, who lives at Lovain, only for the birds and grass.” + 
* We were in some doubt as to which of the many notable Nathanael 
Bacons of this period the companion of Ray and Willughby might be. The 
Rev. C. R. Manning, to whom we submitted the case, thinks he was 
Sir Nathanael Bacon, of Culford, second son of Sir Nicholas, the first 
baronet. He was an eminent painter, and his monument at Culford 
describes him as “ well skilled in the history of plants, and delineating them 
with his pencil.” He has been confused by several writers with Ins uncle, 
Sir Nathanael Bacon of Stiffkey, son of the Lord Keeper. 
f 1 Observations made in a Journey through part of the Low Countries, 
&c., with a Catalogue of Plants not native to England, found spontaneously 
growing in those parts, and their virtues.’ By John Ray. London, 1073. 
Willughby himself alludes to this colony in his ornithological notes, com- 
pleted and edited after his death by Ray. ‘The Ornithology of Francis 
Willughby.’ By John Ray, p. 289. London, 1078. 
