NOTES — ORK'.INAL AND SEI.ECTKD. 43 



A Night Heron (_Nycticorax grisens) at Brightlingsea. — We take the 

 following from the "Essex Standard " of December 17th, 1891 : — "On Sunday, 

 November 29th, an unknown bird was seen stalking about the marshes near 

 Brightlingsea station. On Friday, December 4th, while Mr. Bateman and Mr- 

 Doyle were shooting over the Brightlingsea Woods, for the second time (when 

 the totals reached 391 head, including 270 pheasants and 46 hares), this bird was 

 again flushed, just after the last shot had been fired, nearly at dusk, and con- 

 sequently not bagged. On December 5th, Mr. Doyle, with the keeper, again had 

 a look for the stranger, and this time brought him to book. It resembled a 

 small heron, coloured like a curlew, measuring 23 inches from tail to beak, 

 weight about 21 ozs. The bird was almost certainly an immaturely plumaged 

 ' Night Heron,' Nycticorax grisens^ which Bewick describes as very rare in Great 

 Britain ; while Gould, in ' British Birds,' says it has many times occurred in 

 England, but hardly ever in Ireland or Scotland. Bewick says that the brown 

 and white plumage is that of the female ; while Gould, with much better 

 information at his disposal, affirms that the full plumaged bird, both male and 

 female, has a black crown and two long white droopers, something like quill 

 pens, attached to the back of the head, with a white breast and vivid green back. 

 According to the same authority the bird does not acquire its beautiful colouring 

 till fully two years old. The unearthly, unmusical croak it gives at night when 

 hunting for eels or frogs gave cause for its being thought a bird of ill omen in 

 Italy, for one of the old classic poets (the writer forgets whether Horace or some 

 other) speaks of it as ' Impi-obe nycticorax^ the ' wicked night-croaker.' The 

 bird has b.-en sent to Mr. Ward, of Piccadilly, for preservation." 



According to Christy's "Birds of Essex," the Night Heron has occurred but 

 once in Essex, at Dovercourt, on November 29th, 1880. We shall be glad to 

 have further particulars of the Brightlingsea bird. 



The Clarke Collection of Humming Birds. — We understand that the 

 very fine collection of Humming Birds and allied forms, formed by the late 

 Alderman Joshua Clarke, at Saffron Walden, has been removed from his house 

 to the Saffron W^alden Museum. The members of the Club had an opportunity 

 of seeing this collection on the occasions of two former visits to Saffron Walden. 



Tha New British Butterfly, Hesperia lineola. — It is quite evident that 

 Essex will not retain the honour of having its own peculiar species of butterfly. 

 Hesperia Itneo/a turned up last season in many localities, particularly in the 

 fens, and entomologists are beginning to think that it will ultimately prove to 

 be as generally distributed as its congener, H. thaiimas. Many specimens were 

 taken last season in the neighbourhood of Leigh, where it was first discovered, 

 and in the "Entomologist" for Januarj' (vol. xxv., p. 17), Mr. Gervase F. 

 Mathew gives an interesting account of his finding the butterfly at Harwich, in 

 July, 1886. He also took several last July, and bred one from a pupa which he 

 found spun up between some blades of coarse grass. Mr. Mathew's notes on 

 the distinctions between the two very closely allied species, lineola and thaumas, 

 will be found useful. 



The Essex Emerald Moth (Phorodesma Smaragdaria) in Essex. — 

 This almost exclusively Essex moth seems to become commoner the more it is 

 looked for, over 200 larvae having been taken, it is reported, during last autumn 

 in the salt marshes. In the case of such a local insect it is to be feared that the 

 rapacity of some collectors will seriously diminish its numbers, if indeed they do 



