THE PURPLE HERON. 67 



latter a patch of drooping plumes, which are slaty-grey, the 

 longer ones white at their ends ; on each side of the chest a 

 patch of maroon-chestnut plumes ; breast and abdomen slaty- 

 black ; sides of body slaty-grey ; thighs pale cinnamon ; under 

 wing-coverts chestnut ; axillaries and quill-lining slaty-grey, 

 with a wash of rufous on the former ; bill brownish-black, the 

 lower mandible brownish-yellow, the tip yellow ; cere greenish- 

 yellow ; tarsi and feet black on their exterior face, brownish- 

 yellow behind ; bare part of thigh yellow ; iris pale yellow. 

 Total length, 30 inches ; culmen, 4*8; wing, 14-3; tail, 5-0; 

 tarsus, 5'2. 



Adult Female. — Similar to the male, but not so brightly 

 coloured, with the black ornamental plumes on the nape 

 shorter. Total length, 30 inches; wing, 13*2. 



Winter Plumage. — The black nape-plumes are absent, and the 

 ornamental grey plumes of the back and scapulars and on the 

 fore-neck are much less developed. 



Young Birds. — Much browner than the adults, all the feathers 

 of the upper surface being edged with sandy-buff; the reddish 

 scapular-plumes very short and feebly developed; the inner 

 secondaries strongly glossed with oily-green, with sandy-buff mar- 

 gins ; neck yellowish-buff, with a slight tinge of chestnut ; lower 

 throat and fore-neck streaked with dusky-brown, the latter 

 more broadly ; forehead blackish, the hinder crown dull chest- 

 nut; sides of face uniform yellowish-buff; cheeks and upper 

 throat white ; sides of breast reddish-buff, mottled with grey 

 bases to the feathers ; centre of breast and abdomen buffy- 

 white, streaked with dusky. 



Range in Great Britain. — Mr. Howard Saunders estimates that 

 nearly fifty examples, mostly young birds, of the present 

 species have been obtained in the British Islands. As might 

 have been expected, these occurrences have mostly taken place 

 on our eastern coasts, and less frequently in the south. Only 

 one example has been obtained in Ireland, a bird having been 

 killed at Carrickmacross in 1834, and but three Scottish records 

 are known, namely, from Caithness and Aberdeenshire more 

 than forty years ago, while a young female specimen, shot near 

 Prestonpans in October, 1872, is in the collection of Mr. 



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