PURPLE HERON. 457 



known two or three individuals to have been met with in 

 Norfolk within a few years. One instance only of its occur- 

 rence in Scotland is mentioned : it is recorded in the 

 Zoologist for July, 1849, p. 2497, by the Rev. James Smith, 

 who, on the 18th of June of that year, on returning a skin 

 of the Purple Heron which I had lent him for comparison, 

 wrote as follows : — " I have now ascertained beyond a doubt 

 that a specimen of the Purple Heron was shot in a small 

 marsh adjoining a farm-house in this parish (Monquhitter) 

 some time about the beginning of March, 1847. It came 

 from the south-east when it alighted. It was a beautiful 

 specimen, and measured five feet from tip to tip of the 

 extended wings. As the individual by whom it was shot 

 had never seen a Heron like it before, he sent it to a neigh- 

 bouring village to be stuffed. While there it attracted 

 general attention and admiration, all declaring that no such 

 bird had come under their notice before. The stuffer having 

 to be from home for a considerable time before he could get 

 the process properly completed, he found to his mortification, 

 on his return, that the specimen had been all but gnawed to 

 pieces by rats." Enough, however, remained to enable Mr. 

 Smith to ascertain the species. Mr. Thompson has recorded, 

 in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society for 1834, and in 

 the second volume of his Natural History of Ireland, p. 155, 

 the occurrence of one in Ireland. 



