The Zoologist/3rd series, vol 1 (1877)/Issue 10/On the Former Nesting of the Spoonbill in the County of Sussex

by James Edmund Fotheringham Harting

 

ON THE FORMER NESTING OF THE SPOONBILL
IN THE COUNTY OF SUSSEX.

By the Editor.

 

Although the Spoonbill, Platalea leucorodia, is generally classed amongst the rarer British birds, instances of its occurrence in this country in spring and autumn are not infrequent. This is more particularly the case in the eastern and south-eastern counties of England, where scarcely a year elapses without several of these birds being seen, and most of them unfortunately shot. Occasionally they arrive in small flocks, but are more often observed singly or in pairs.^[1] This return year by year, with a certain amount of regularity, seems to indicate a lingering inherited impulse to revisit the spots where in former days their ancestors not only reared their young in safety, but were protected the while by Act of Parliament.

Records, however, of the former nesting of the Spoonbill in this country are extremely rare, and putting aside certain old Statutes which provided for the protection of this species amongst others during the breeding season, and from which it is therefore to be inferred that the bird once nested here, I have not until recently met with any direct evidence on the subject, except that of Sir Thomas Browne, the celebrated physician of Charles the Second's day.

The testimony of this trustworthy observer on the subject is very clear. In his 'Account of Birds found in Norfolk,' written about the year 1668,^[2] he particularly mentions, "The Platea or Shovelard which build upon the tops of high trees," and says, "They have formerly built in the Hernery at Claxton and Reedham; now at Trimley, in Suffolk. They come in March, and are shot by fowlers, not for their meat, but the handsomeness of the same; remarkable in their white colour, copped crown, and spoon or spatule-like bill."

His description of the bird leaves no doubt as to the species intended.

Willughby, a contemporary and correspondent of Sir Thomas Browne, has described, in his 'Ornithology,' a young Spoonbill "taken out of the nest," and although he has not stated where the nest was found, it may well have been one of those referred to as being in existence at Trimley in Suffolk about four years before VVilhighby's death, which occurred in 1672.^[3]

The record to which I now desire to direct attention is a century older, and, so far as I am aware, has not hitherto been brought to the notice of ornithologists.

In a MS. Survey of certain manors in Sussex, "taken by commandemente of the Duke of Norfolk," and "begoune the xxv^th daye of September, Anno xij° Eliz. R." (1570), the following memorandum appears:—

 

"M^Ḍ that w^thin half a furlouge of Halnaker parke pale on the west side thereof lyeth a parke called Goodwoode Parke; and by the northest pane thereof lyeth one other parke called Shelhurst Parke, distaunte from Halnaker pale one quarter of a myle. And on the north side of that pale lyeth one other parke called Eslden, halfe a myle dystaunte. In the woods called the Westwood and the Haselette, Shovelers and Herons have lately breed, and some Shovelers breed there this yeere."

 

This curious MS., consisting of fourteen folios, is in the possession of Mr. Evelyn P. Shirley. The Survey in question, which was made by "Robt^e Harrys and John Dobbes, servauntes to the said Duke," is noticed in the ninth volume of the 'Sussex Archæological Collections' (p. 223), but the contributor, the late Mr. M.A. Lower, not being an ornithologist, has made no comment on the passage just cited.

Dallaway, in his 'History of the Western Division of the County of Sussex' (vol. i., p. 174), thus describes the locus in quo:—

 

"East Dean is so called with reference to West Dean, from which it is disjoined by Singleton. It is a parish of larger dimensions, and nearly similar description, in point of soil and situation, in a narrow valley between the headlands formed by the range of downs by which this district of the county is intersected. It contains 4682 acres 2 roods and 33 perches from actual measurement,^[4] with down and forest land in the same large proportion; and abounds in beautiful groves of beech wood. The confines are Singleton on the west, Cocking and Heyshot on the north, Up-Waltham on the east, and Eastham on the south. The village lies on the western extremity of the parish, about seven miles from Chichester [and the same distance south by east from Midhurst].

"Domesday includes this parish in Silleton, and gives no distinct description of it. In the 23rd of Henry II. the manor was held by William de Albini, Earl of Arundel, of the King in capite, as of the honor of the Castle of Arundel. It passed by partition, on the demise of Earl Hugh, to John Fitz Alan, whose descendants made a large park with a mansion there; and in the 18th of Henry VI. it was found to have been a member of the jointure settled upon Beatrice, relict of Thomas, Earl of Arundel, who died in 1414 without issue. Having devolved to John, Lord Lumley,^[5] it was by him for the first time aliened by sale, in 1589, to Peter Garton, of Gray's Inn, London, who was afterwards knighted.

"Selhurst Park, containing 886 acres, descended to Philip, Earl of Arundel; and in 1797 was transferred by sale to the late Charles, Duke of Richmond, by the late Charles, Duke of Norfolk.

"In the family of Garton, the manor appears to have been vested considerably above a century, when it was inherited by Garton Orme, Esq., of Peterborough, in pursuance of the will of the last William Garton, Esq., who died without issue.

"In 1752, in consequence of an Act obtained in 1750 for that purpose, the manorial property was sold to Sir Matthew Fetherstonehaugh, Bart., as held of the paramount manor of Stanstede,^[6] who exchanged it with Charles, the late Duke of Richmond, for the estate of Lady Holt Park, in the parish of West Harting; and it lias passed as the other settled estates of that noble family. Various small farms have been subsequently added to it."

 

That the species referred to in this Survey is the Spoonbill (Platalea leucorodia) and not the Shoveller Duck (Anas clypeata) seems clear, for several reasons. In the first place, "Shoveller," "Shoveler," "Shovelard," and "Sholarde" are so many forms of spelling the old name for that species, as clearly identified by Sir Thomas Browne. In the second place, the birds in question were nesting "in a wood," where the Shoveller Duck would not be found at any season. And further they were breeding in company with Herons, a habit not uncommon with the Spoonbill as formerly observed in Norfolk, and elsewhere.^[7]

As a curious connecting link between these two records, it may bo mentioned that Sir Thomas Browne, when writing of the "hernery" in Norfolk, knew an old man who might have seen the colony in Sussex, for he "wayted on the Earle of Leicester when Queen Eliz. came to Norwich, and told raee many things thereof."^[8] Now Queen Elizabeth visited Norwich in 1578, or eight years after the date of the Sussex Survey.^[9]

In those days, it appears. Spoonbills were esteemed good eating, and were served up to table with many other fowl, which are now discarded as little better than rank carrion.

Amongst the Privy Purse Expenses of King Henry the Eighth, between the years 1529 and 1532, the following entry occurs in November, 1531:—

"Itm. the X daye of Novembr, paied to a's'vnt of
my lorde Cobhams, in rewarde for bringing of
Shovelards to the King's grace... iiij s. viii d."

For this sum the man may perhaps have brought nine birds, for we learn from another source that the value of a "Shovelard" in those days was sixpence. In the Earl of Northumberland's Household Book, which contains entries made between the years 1512 and 1525, the following occurs:—

"Item. Sholardes to be hadde for my Lordes owne Mees at
Pryncipall Feestes, and to be at vj d. a pece."

Not only was the bird eaten "at pryncipall feestes" in those days, but during the breeding season it was protected by Statute like other wild fowl.

In 1534 an Act of Parliament was passed entitled "An Act to avoide distruction of Wilde fowle," whereby, amongst other things, it was enacted that between the first day of March and the last day of June, "no maner of person or persons shall presume by day or by night, willyngly to withdrawe, purloyne, take, distroye or convey any maner of egges of any kinde of wildfowle, from or in any nette, place or places, where they shall chaunce to be laide by any kinde of the same wildfowle, upon peine of imprisonment for one yere, and to lese and forfait for every egge of any Crane or Bustarde, so distroied, purloined, withdravvne, conveide, or taken from any nest or place xx. pence, and for every egge of every Biltour, Heronne or Shouelarde viii d., and for every egge of every Malarde, Tele, or other wildfowle, one penie."

An attempt has been made by recent legislation to afford the Spoonbill that protection during the breeding season which was formerly accorded to it by ancient statute; but it is feared that this protection has come almost too late. So long an interval has elapsed since any nest of this bird has been seen in England, and so many changes in the progress of agriculture have affected its former haunts, that the most ardent ornithologist can scarcely hope to see this fine bird re-established in its old position, and breeding in our heronries. On this account any record of its former nesting in this country is worth noting.

 

---

1. In 1850 half-a-dozen Spoonbills arrived in Sandwich Haven during the first week in June, and afterwards betook themselves to Wingham Marshes, where several were eventually shot. (See 'Zoologist,' 1850, p. 2853.) The following year, on the 3rd October, three were killed out of a flock of six which had alighted in a field near Hailsham. (See 'Zoologist,' 1851, p. 3278.)
2. See Sir Thomas Browne's Works. Ed. Wilkin, vol. iv. pp. 313—324.
3. Sir Thomas died exactly ten years later. Willughby speaks of him (op. cit., p. 286) as "my honoured friend Sir Thomas Browne of Norwich, a person deservedly famous for his skill in all parts of learning, but especially in Natural History."
4. Arable, 1896 acres 2 roods 2 perches; Down, 2076 3 roods 29 perches; Woods, 691 acres 32 perches.
5. An ancestor of the present Earl of Scarborough.
6. Sold for ₤12,000. See also Horsfield, 'History and Antiquities of the County of Sussex," vol. ii., pp. 79, 80.
7. "In a certain grove, at a village called Sevenhuys, not far from Leyden, in Holland, Spoonbills build, and breed yearly in great numbers, on the tops of high trees; where also build Herons, Night-ravens (Night Herons), Shags, Cormorants, &c. In this grove every sort of bird (as they told us) hath its several quarter, where they build all together. When the young ones are ripe, those that farm the grove, with a hook on the top of a long pole, catch hold of the bough on which the nest is built and shake out the young ones, but sometimes nest and all down to the ground."—Willughby, 'Ornithology,' p. 289.
8. Letter to his son Edward, dated 1st November, 1680 (Works, vol. i., p. 290). In this letter mention is made of a poor woman, who was then living, at the age of 105, and one John More, who had recently died at the age of 102.
9. "She came on horseback from Ipswich, by the high road to Norwich, in the summer time; but shee had a coach or two in her trayne. She rid through Norwich, unto the bishop's palace, where she stayed a weeke, and went sometimes a hunting on horseback, and up to Mushold (Mousehold) Hill often, to see wrestling and shooting" (tom. cit., p. 289).