ARDEID.B. 



569 





THE PURPLE HERON. 



Ardea purpurea, Linnaeus. 



Although the Purple Heron is comparatively abundant on the 

 neighbouring shores of the Continent, it is only of irregular occur- 

 rence on the east coast of England, and is even less frequent in the 

 south, from Sussex to the Scilly Islands. In Wales and along the 

 west side it has seldom been noticed ; while the only example 

 on record for Ireland is one killed at Carrickmacross in 1834, 

 now in the Warren collection at the Dublin Museum. In Scotland 

 this species is said to have occurred in Caithness and Aberdeenshire 

 more than forty years ago, and Mr. W. Evans has a young bird shot 

 near Prestonpans, East Lothian, in October 1872. Altogether about 

 fifty specimens have been obtained in the British Islands, the majority 

 of these being in immature plumage. 



The Purple Heron is only a wanderer to the south of Scandinavia, 

 Heligoland (once), Northern Germany and Poland. Its nesting- 

 places nearest to our shores are in Holland, where it is still by no 



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