74 Allen's naturalist's library. 



i. the great white heron. herodias alba. 



Ardea alba, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 239 (1766) ; Dresser, B. Eur. 

 vi. p. 231, pi. 398 (1880) ; B. O. U. List Br. B. p. 108 

 (1883) ; Seebohm, Br. B. ii. p. 477 (1884) ; Saunders, ed. 

 Yarr. Br. B. iv. p. 177 (1884); id. Man. Br. B. p. 359 

 (1889) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xx. (1891). 



Egretta alba, Macgill. Br. B. iv. p. 466 (1882). 



Herodias alba, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvii. p. 90. 



Adult Male. — Snow-white all over, with a dense dorsal train 

 of elongated feathery plumes ; the feathers on the fore-neck and 

 on the sides of the upper breast also largely developed, and 

 forming a kind of pectoral shield ; bill black ; lores and orbits 

 pale green ; tarsi and feet black, the tibia flesh-colour ; iris 

 pale yellow or buffy-yellow. Total length, 44 inches ; culmen, 

 5-5; wing, 15-8; tail, 6-5; tarsus, 775. 



Adult Female.— Similar to the male, but the ornamental plumes 

 not so dense or so long. 



Winter Plumage. — Differs from the summer plumage in want- 

 ing the ornamental plumes, and in having the bill yellow instead 

 of black. 



Range in Great Britain. — About eight occurrences of the Great 

 White Heron were admitted by Mr. Howard Saunders in 1889 

 as being British. Of these, three were said to have been ob- 

 tained in Yorkshire, one in Nottinghamshire, one in Oxford- 

 shire, and another in Thorney Fen, in Cambridgeshire ; but 

 the number is reduced by Mr. J. H. Gurney. In Scotland two 

 examples have been noted : one in the Firth of Forth and one 

 at Loch Katrine. Several of the above were killed in summer. 



Hange outside the British Islands. — According to my present 

 conclusions, this species is only found from Southern Europe 

 to Central Asia, wintering in Africa and in North India and 

 Burma. Some of the specimens from the last-named provinces 

 may, however, turn out to be H. timoriensis, which inhabits 

 Japan and Northern China, and migrates to Australia through 

 the Malayan Archipelago. 



Habits. — I saw a pair of this beautiful Heron standing on the 

 shores of the Danube on my journey from Vienna to Budapest, 

 but I did not meet with it during my expeditions to the Hansag 



