A dictionary of British birds : reprinted from Montagu's Ornithological dictionary, and incorporating the additional species described by Selby; Yarrell, in all three editions, and in natural-history journals / compiled and edited by Edward Newman.

George Montagu

Date:: 1866

Credit: A dictionary of British birds : reprinted from Montagu's Ornithological dictionary, and incorporating the additional species described by Selby; Yarrell, in all three editions, and in natural-history journals / compiled and edited by Edward Newman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$of sexes by size, or by colour and mark- ings. The fact is that the young, as in the Gommon^parrow, puts forth the black marks last, and consequently in the infant state of plumage it has been considered as the female. It is a much more elegant species than the House Sparrow, and dif- fers from that bird with respect to sexual distinction in plumage, for evei-y one knows the cock from the hen of that very common species, Fringilla domestica. The note of the Tree Sparrow would only be discriminated from the other by persons of ex2)erieuce in that science; it is, how- ever, more shrill. So little do people in general know or discriminate the bounties of Nature TOth which they are surrounded, that even the best informed in the neigh- bourhood did not know the distinction of these two species. It is now perfectly clear this bird resides amongst trees only, and that it makes its nest in holes and cavities of such as are decayed, and never amongst the branches, nor in buildings. This species may be considered as one of the most local of our indigenous birds, and, we suspect, by no means plentiful in any part of England ; but as the circum- stance of House Sparrows sometimes making their nest in ti'ees has occasioned an opinion that they are a different spe- cies, and have frequently been entitled Tree Sparrow, it is extremely difficult to trace the true Fringilla Montana. Sparrow, Water.—See Bunting, Reed. Sparrow, Water, Lesser.— See Warbler, Sedge. [Speckled Diver. — The first and second Speckled Divers of Bewick are respectively the young bird of the year, and the adult, in winter plumage, of the Redthroated Diver, which see.] Spency.—See Petrel, Stormy. Spoonbill. — A genus of birds, the cha- racters of which are : Bill long, broad, fiat, and thin, the end widening into a round- ish form, not unlike a spoon. Nostrils small, placed near the base. Tongue small and pointed. Feet semipalmated. Spoonbill. — See Shoveler; and Duck, Scaup. Spoonbill, White. — \_Yarrell, ii. 597; Hewitson, Ixxxv. 320.] Platalea leucoro- dia, Lin. Syst. i. p. 231, 1; Gmcl. Syst. ii. p. 613 ; Ind. Om. ii. p. 667,1; Bcioick, Br. Birds, 11, t. p. 25. Platen, sive Pelecanus, B,aii Syn. p. 102, 1; Will. p. 212, t. 52; jBns. V. p. 352, 1; lb. 8vo, ii. p. 300. La Spatule, Buf. vii. p. 448, t. 24. Spoon- bill, or Pelican, Albin, ii. t. 66 ; Will. Angl. p. 288, t. 5. White Spoonbill, Br. Zool. App. t. 9 ; Arct. Zool. ii. p. 441, A.; S?/p. p. 66 ; Lath. Syn. v. p. 13, 1; Ost. Menag. t. p. 61; Leioin, Br. Birds, iv. t. 142; Wale. Syn. ii. t. 123 ; Pult. Cat. Dorset, p. 13:—Weight about three pounds and a half; length two feet eight inches. The bill is near seven inches long, and three- quarters of an inch broad in the narrowest part; two inches towards the point in the largest part of the spoon; colour black, sometimes brown, with an orange-coloured spot near the tip of the upper mandible ; it is also crossed with several indentations and dotted protuberances ; the irides in some grey, others reddish; the lore and round the eyes and throat the skin is bare and black. The whole plumage is white; sometimes the quills are tipped with black; the legs are black, six inches long ; thighs bare about half-way ; toes connected by a small web, extending as far as the second joint of the outer and first joint of the inner toe. The Spoonbill is rarely met with in England. Mr. Pennant mentions that a flock of these birds migrated into tbe marshes near Yarmouth, in Noi’folk, in Api-il, 1774. We have also been assured it is sometimes seen on the coast of De- vonshire in the winter. Is said to build its nest in high trees near to the sea, and to lay three or four white eggs, powdered with a few pale red spots, about the size of that of a Hen. Supplement.— In the former part of this work mention was made that the Spoonbill had been sometimes seen on or contiguous to the coast of South Devon. Since that period two have been shot within a few miles of Kingsbridge, both of which are in our collection. The first is a j'oung bird, by the colour of the bill and short feathers on the back of the head; the plumage is white, except the greater quill-feathers, and the larger coverts be- longing to them, which are more or less tipped with black, and the shafts mostly of that colour; the alul<B spurice are mai-ked the same. Shot in November, 1804. The other, an old bird in the highest state of beauty, being in its full plumage, was shot on the 16th of March, 1807 ; and though it had all the appear- ance of a male from the prodigious flowing crest, it turned out upon dissection to be a female. This beautiful bird weighed three pounds three ounces; measured thirty-one inches to the end of the tail, and thirty-eight inches to the end of the middle toe : length of the bill from the feathers on the forehead seven inches and a quarter; breadth of the spoon nearly two inches; the colour dusky, with$