126 
SPOONBILL. 
was obtained near the Land’s End, on the 8th. of October, 
1845: it was an immature specimen. One also at St. Mary’s, 
Scilly, the first week in June, 1850; one, also a young bird 
of the year, at Frensham Fond, Surrey, October 24th., 1844. 
One on West Sedge Moor, in the parish of Stoke St. Gregory, 
Somersetshire, on the 25th. of November, 1813; one at Lynn, 
in Norfolk, about the 23rd. of September, 1843; a flock 
occurred in the marshes in 1774; several were killed in the 
year 1808, and two or three are generally killed every spring 
on Breydon. In Dorsetshire several, one of them near Poole; 
some also in Devonshire. In Suffolk four, one of them at 
Aldborough, and the other three at Thorpe, out of a flock 
of seven. Two were met with in Lincolnshire, in 1826; they 
used to build anciently in that county at Trimley. Selby 
alludes to two killed in Lincolnshire. One, a male, on the 
Eremol Fiver, near Nottingham, in 1833, as William Felkin, 
Esq., Jun., has written me word. 
The species has occurred also in Worcestershire and 
Gloucestershire. In Kent, a flock of six frequented Sandwich 
Haven in the first week of June, 1850; one of them was 
shot near there, one, an old female, in the Wingham Marshes, 
and three were seen flying about in Pegwell Bay. 
In Wales, one was procured near Aberystwith, in January, 
1838. Two had been obtained near Holyhead, in the Isle of 
Anglesea, in the year 1832. 
In Ireland, three were seen near Youghall, in the county 
of Cork, in the autumn of 1829, and one of them was shot. 
Sir Fobert Sibbald mentions it as an occasional visitor to 
Scotland, and he states that he also received it from Orkney. 
Dr. Fleming mentions one that was shot in Zetland. 
The Spoonbill is easily tamed if taken when young, but in 
its wild state is shy and distrustful. Marshes, bogs, swamps, 
and low grounds moistened by pools and streams, are its 
natural haunts. It is pretty good to eat. To itself, when 
in confinement, nothing seems to come amiss. 
They fly with the neck and legs both stretched out, and 
in standing the neck is commonly bent in the form of the 
letter S. In flight the wings are widely spread, and moved 
with regular flappings, but not very quickly. 
It appears to collect its food by ploughing the water above 
the soft sand or mud from side to side with its spade-like 
bill, keeping it open till something comes in its way, or rather 
till it comes in the way of something. This with the neck 
