Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] [Regent's Park.
SPOONBILL.
So called on account of its spoon-shaped bill.
Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] [Regent's Park.
SACRED IBIS.
Sacred to the ancient Egyptians, it is known to the Abyssinians to-day as "Father John."
A graphic description by Mr. Alfred Crowley of a visit to the breeding-haunts of the spoonbill, about fifteen miles from Amsterdam, in 1884, is well worth reproducing here: "Taking a small boat in tow, we were punted across the open water, over which were flying numbers of sand-martins, swifts, common and black terns, and black-headed gulls, the reeds being full of coots, moorhens, sedge- and reed-warblers, etc., and in the distance we saw, rising above the reeds occasionally, a small spoonbill or purple heron. On nearing a large mass of reeds, one of the boatmen struck the side of the punt with the pole, when up rose some fifty spoonbills and eight or ten purple herons; and as we came closer to the reeds there were soon hovering over our heads, within easy shot, some 200 of the former, and fifty or sixty of the latter. Strange to say, not a note or sound escaped from the spoonbills, and only a few croaks from the herons. On reaching the reeds, we moored our punt, and two of the men, wading in the mud, took us in the small boat about fifty yards through the reeds, where we found ourselves surrounded by spoonbills' nests. They were placed on the mud among the reeds, built about 1 foot or 18 inches high and 2 feet in diameter at the bottom, tapering to 1 foot at the top, where there was a slight depression, in which lay four eggs, or in most cases four young birds, many ready to leave the nest, and several ran off as we approached. In the nests with young there was a great difference in age and size, one being about a day or so old, and the oldest nearly ready to leave the nest—some two or three weeks old—so that evidently the birds lay their four eggs at considerable intervals, and begin to sit on depositing the first. After wandering about, a matter of difficulty on account of the mud, we found a clutch of only three eggs, and one of four, which I managed to blow. We also obtained two clutches of eggs of the purple heron, but some of the latter had young."
