PURPLE HERON 245 



Britain to nest in low bushes ; while in California a colony of blue 

 herons {A. herodias) build on the ground in a swamp. In Great Britain 

 there are usually three or four, but occasionally five of the bluish-white 

 eggs laid in a clutch, but in India the number is generally only three ; 

 in length the eggs vary from rather less than 2.\ to 2|- inches in length. 

 Herons fly heavily, with the head and neck bent back in the manner 

 referred to above, uttering from time to time their well-known harsh 

 "cronk," which may also be heard when the bird is at rest. In search 

 of the frogs, fish, and water-rats which constitute their chief food, herons 

 frequent rivers, lakes, and marshes ; and although it may be admitted 

 that during the spawMiing season they do no little harm to salmon and 

 trout fisheries, it is perhaps hardly fair that for such robberies the death- 

 penalty should be exacted. The importance of the heron as a quarry 

 in the old days of falconry needs no more than passing mention. It 

 may be added that, despite their formidable beaks, herons are always 

 mobbed if they venture to approach a rookery ; and in the summer 

 of 1905 an observer records having seen a heron chased by a dozen 

 or so of rooks up and down the outskirts of a wood till it finally 

 retired beaten. Only by dodging and swerving suddenly could the 

 great bird get the least respite from its tormentors ; and when it 

 returned, after a brief rest, to the unequal contest, it was soon com- 

 pletely driven away. A heron with the plumage pale brown and 

 white is exhibited in the Natural History ^Museum. 



Purple Heron ^^ ^^^ handsomer bird than its grey relative, which 

 (Ardea purpurea), exceeds it in length only by some three inches, 

 the purple heron is but a casual visitor to the 

 British Isles, where it mostly occurs in the eastern counties of England, 

 in the form of immature specimens. From its relatively longer toes, 

 the middle one of which, with its claw, is equal in length to the shank 

 of the leg, this bird is sometimes made the type of a distinct genus, 

 under the name of PJioyx piirpiireiis ; and although there is con- 

 siderable justification for this course, it seems on the whole simpler to 

 follow the old plan of including it in the same genus as the grey 

 heron. The true home of the purple heron is central and southern 

 Europe, where it nests as near to England as the marshes of Holland ; 

 and whence it migrates southwards in winter to Africa. Only some 

 fifty examples of this bird are believed to have visited the British 

 Islands during the period in which exact records have been kept ; 

 and of these not more than about half-a-dozen were from Scotland, 

 and only one from Ireland. 



