178 ARDEID^. 



as killed at Buttermere. Montagu, in his Supplement, says 

 that a White Heron made its appearance on the borders of 

 the river Avon, in Devonshire, in the autumn of the year 

 1805, where it was frequently observed by the Rev. Mr. 

 Vaughan, in company with three or four of the common 

 species, and sometimes alone ; but its extreme wariness 

 disappointed the many attempts to shoot it, although it 

 continued within the range of a few miles for two months. 

 Messrs. Sheppard and Whitear, in their Catalogue of the 

 Norfolk and Suffolk Birds (Trans. Linn. Soc. xv. p. 40), say, 

 "that on the 3rd of October, 1834, in a walk on the banks 

 of the river Stour, we observed a large White Heron cross 

 over from the Suffolk to the Essex side of the river. It 

 ajjpeared to be pure white, and to stand up rather taller 

 than some Common Herons, which were feeding not far oif. 

 A similar bird was observed in the spring on the Oakley 

 shores; and, subsequently to our observation, one was seen 

 on the banks of the river Orwell." A specimen, formerly in 

 the collection of the late Mr. Thurtell of Eaton, appears, 

 according to Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., to have been mounted 

 from a skin, and not from the flesh. 



The earliest proof of the occurrence of this species in 

 England, was supplied by Mr. Arthur Strickland in a com- 

 munication made to the British Association, at its meeting 

 at Newcastle in August, 1838 (Report Trans, p. 106), in 

 which he stated that ''twelve or thirteen years previously a 

 bird of this species was seen for some weeks about Hornsea 

 Mere, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, and was some time 

 after presented to the Author, in whose collection it then 

 was in perfect preservation." Mr. Strickland added that 

 " another, in full summer plumage, was killed by a labourer 

 in the fields of Mr. James Hall, of Scorborough, near 

 Beverley, about three years ago, and was in the possession 

 of that gentleman ;* and a third specimen of this bird was in 



* The former is now (1884) in the Stiickland collection in the Museum at 

 York, and Mr. W. E. Clarke gives the date of its capture as " winter of 1821 " 

 (Yorks. Vertebs. p. 50). The second is now, according to tho same authority, 

 in the Rudston collection in the York Museum. 



