37° PURPLE HEROX. 



means uncommon, though lately interfered with by drainage ; but, 

 while principally a visitor on passage to Belgium, it breeds in con- 

 siderable numbers in the marshy districts of the Loire, and in some 

 parts of the south and east of France. In the Spanish Peninsula 

 it nests freely, as it does also from Central Germany to the swampy 

 parts of Southern Russia ; migrating, as a rule, in the cold season 

 from all the countries on the northern side of the Mediterranean. 

 It is found in ^Madeira, the Canaries (rarely) and Cape Verde 

 Islands, as well as in Northern Africa, while in Abyssinia it has been 

 obtained at an elevation of 9,000 ft., and it inhabits suitable locali- 

 ties down to Cape Colony and Madagascar. In Asia, to the east of 

 about long. 50*^, it is represented by A. vianillcnsis^ which has no 

 streaks on the fore neck. 



Its breeding-places are usually difficult of access, being situated 

 in flooded swamps, or in the midst of dense masses of reeds. Mr. 

 Philip Crowley describes the nests at the Naarden Meer, near 

 Amsterdam, as placed about three feet above the water, and made 

 by bending down twelve or fifteen reeds to form a platform, on 

 which some smaller pieces were arranged crosswise, and this agrees 

 with my experience in Spain. The bluish-green eggs, usually 3 in 

 number, are smaller than those of the Common Heron : measure- 

 ments 2' 2 by I "5 in. In its habits the Purple Heron is shy, and 

 crepuscular or even nocturnal in its time of feeding. From the 

 thinness of the long snake-like neck, the birds are with difficulty 

 distinguished when they are standing in a reed-margined lake, nearly 

 up to the belly in water; for their bodies, in the shimmering sunlight, 

 exactly resemble tussocks of rushes. The note is more guttural than 

 that of its congener. The food consists of small mammals, reptiles, 

 fishes (especially eels) and aquatic insects. 



The adult has the crown and long plumes glossy purplish-black ; 

 cheeks and sides of the neck fawn-colour, streaked with bluish-black; 

 back and wing-coverts dark slate-grey ; elongated filamentous dorsal 

 feathers chestnut ; tail grey ; neck reddish-buff with a line of black 

 down each side, terminating in a mass of chestnut, grey and black 

 elongated feathers ; under wing-coverts chestnut ; breast rich 

 maroon-red ; thighs rufous ; bill yellow ; toes very long. Length 

 about -^2) '"• (bill 6 in.); wing i4'25. The sexes are alike in 

 plumage, but the male is the larger. In winter the long 

 plumes are absent. In the young, until the second moult, the 

 occipital crest, as well as the elongated feathers at the base of the 

 neck and on the scapulars are absent ; the general colour above is 

 rust-red, and the under parts are brownish-white. 



