148 BIRDS OF NORFOLK, 



remains of two good sized roach, one quite five inches 

 long. As far as I could tell, owing to the shot marks, 

 it was a young female, and presented the following- 

 appearance in its immature plumage. A slight red 

 crest on the head, the dark lines down the front of the 

 neck distinctly marked by young reddish feathers, just 

 shooting, blended with black longitudinal blotches, 

 becoming brown on the breast; cere (when dead) greenish; 

 bill yellowish-green ; quill feathers of the wings and tail 

 perfect, of a purplish blue colour like the bloom on a 

 plum ; wing coverts and back tawny, but the hackles, 

 just showing, of a reddish tint ; the bare portions of the 

 tibia bright yellow all round, the tarsi dark brown in 

 front, the posterior portions yellow, as also the under 

 surface of the feet ; the " feather-tracks " on the breast 

 and on the lower part of the back composed of bright 

 yellow patches of down-like floss silk. 



Another young bird, a male, in my own collection, 

 was purchased in the Norwich fishmarket by Mr. S. 

 Bligh, on the 28th of October, 1865, where it was 

 hanging up in a perfectly fresh state together with a 

 fine bittern, and on enquiry both birds were ascertained 

 to have been shot at Ludham a day or two before. This 

 bird was also very fat, but weighed only two pounds 

 three ounces, and the stomach contained merely a dry 

 pellet of mouse hair, which, from a portion of the tail 

 remaining in the pellet, was believed by Mr. Bligh to 

 belong to the short-tailed field species. 



The purple heron breeds in Holland in considerable 

 numbers : its occurrence, therefore, on our shores, from 

 time to time, is easily to be accounted for. 



