PURPLE HERON. 173 



into the Leveriau Museum ; and it would apjjear from Hunt's 

 " British Ornithology " that an example was obtained near 

 Ormesby, in Norfolk, j^robably, as Mr. Stevenson observes, 

 the same bird which, in Sir William Hooker's MS. is described 

 as shot at Filby in 1810. In the mouth of May, 1830, 

 according to Selby, two adults were obtained in Norfolk ; 

 and since that date, according to Mr. H. Stevenson and Mr. 

 J. H. Gurney, jun., the Purple Heron has occurred in that 

 county about seven times : — once in July, twice in September, 

 twice in October, once in November, and once in December ; 

 nearly all of them being immature birds, and five of them 

 being obtained in the Broad district. Several have been 

 obtained in Suftblk, and two of these, shot near Lowestoft, 

 in 1833, in the Lombe collection, are in adult plumage. 

 In Lincolnshire one was shot on the Witham ; and in 

 Yorkshire Mr. W. E. Clarke records five occurrences, 

 mostly in spring and summer, between 1833 and 1863. In 

 Nottinghamshire one was killed at Clifton, on the Trent, in 

 1868. In Sussex Mr. A. E. Knox records an example shot 

 at Worthing in September 1848 ; and Mr. J. C. Mansel- 

 Pleydell mentions two obtained in Dorset. In Devonshire 

 Dr. Edward Moore notices the capture of two young birds, 

 to which Mr. Plumptre Methuen added one shot near Ply- 

 mouth, and Mr. Gatcombe found a young one hanging up 

 in a poulterer's shop in Stonehouse. The late Mr. Couch 

 of Polperro sent Bewick a drawing from a specimen which 

 alighted on a fishing boat two or three leagues from the 

 coast of Cornwall, and Mr. Rodd has recorded three more 

 examples obtained in that county, two of them in April ; 

 and one in the Scilly Islands, in September. In Wales this 

 species is still more rare, but Mr. E. C. Phillips mentions 

 that one out of three was shot near Talybont, on the Usk, 

 in l^reconshire. Mr. R. C. Musgrave informed Mr. Gould 

 that one was shot about 1850 near Alston, in Cumberland. 

 In Ireland the example in the Warren collection, killed at 

 Carrickmacross in 1834, and now in the Museum of Science 

 and Art, Dublin, is the only one on record. As regards 

 Scotland, Mr. R. Gray mentions one killed in Caithness 



