NOTES. 57 



have been placed hors-de-combat. William WUkinson had a 

 serious accident last season, Henry Marr died during the 

 past winter, and now young Major has been killed. 



T. H. Nelson. 



"A LOST BRITISH BIRD." 



Under the above title there appeared in a recent issue of the 

 Zoologist (1910, pp. 150-156) an article by Mr. Frederick J. 

 Stubbs, a few short comments on which may be of interest 

 to our readers. 



The article commences by stating that : " During the 

 Middle Ages England was the home of a White Heron or 

 Egret, of which no useful description appears to have been 

 handed down," and towards its close the writer informs us : 

 " I do not hesitate in thinking that the bird was Ardea garzetta, 

 and not A. alba.'^ So mucli being clear, we will briefly 

 examine the writer's arguments in support of this statement. 

 These he divides into three classes, firstly, references to the 

 works of " Certain old ornithologists " ; secondly, quotations 

 from early MSS. and printed books bearing on the subject, and 

 thirdly to extracts from two Acts of Parliament. We wQl 

 deal with the above in their order. 



We are firstly informed that William Turner (1500-1568), 

 in his Avium Pr;ecipuaru7n, etc. (A. H. Evans' edition), after 

 noticing the Common Heron, goes on to say that there was 

 another, the " Alba, which was fair in colour . . . and brings 

 forth young well." Turner, of course, said nothing of the 

 kind, the words are Aristotle's, on whose History of Animals 

 Turner is here commenting ; what the latter did say is next 

 somewhat incorrectly quoted. Evans' translation is : " Of 

 this kind [the Common Heron] I have seen some white, though 

 they are rare, which differed from the aforesaid neither in their 

 size nor shape of body, but in colour only. Furthermore, the 

 white has been observed in England to nest with the blue and 

 to bear offspring. Wherefore it is clear that they are of one 

 species." In Mr. Stubbs' quotation the words we have 

 printed in italics are omitted, a not unimportant fact if, as 

 seems more than likely from the above quotation. Turner was 

 merely referring to albino specimens of the Common Heron. 

 Merrett, Muffett, and Tunstall are then cited as mentioning a 

 White Heron. Neither of these three authors gives us any 

 information about the bird, though Tunstall says " Grus & 

 Garzetta olim in paludibus Angliae, teste Raio & aliis, notis- 

 simae aves, his vero temporibus inter rarissimas & alienigenas 

 habentur." In quoting Tunstall in another passage the 



