LITTLE EGRET. 481 
ARDEA GARZETTA. 
LITTLE EGRET. 
(PLate 38.) 
Ardea egretta, Briss. Orn. v. p. 431 (1760). 
Ardea garzetta, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 237 (1766); et auctorum plurimorum— 
Latham, Temminck, Naumann, Schlegel, Dresser, &c. 
Ardea niuea, Gimel. Reise Russi. i. p. 164 (1770). 
Ardea santodactylos, Gmel. Reise Russl. iii. p. 258 (1774). 
Ardea nivea, Gmel. Syst: Nat. i. p. 640 (1788). 
Ardea xquinoctialis, Linn. apud Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. §e. Brit, Mus. p. 33 
(1816). 
Herodias garzetta (Linn.), Bote, Isis, 1822, p. 559. 
Ardea melanopus, Wagler, Isis, 1829, p. 660. 
Herodias jubata, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 586 (1831). 
Ardea nigrirostris, | 
Ardea orientalis, | 
Egretta nigrirostris (Gray), 
Egretta orientalis (Gray), | Bonap. Comp. List B. Eur. § N. Amer. p. 47 (1888). 
Egretta garzetta (Zinn.), 
Ardea nigripes, Temm. Man. d’Orn. iv. p. 377 (1840). 
Erodius garzetta (Linn.), Macgill. Man. Brit. B. ii. p. 185 (1842). 
Herodias immaculata, Gould, B. of Austr. vi. pl. 59 (1848). 
Garzetta immaculata (Gould), Bonap. Compt. Rend. xl, p. 722 (1855). 
Garzetta egretta (Briss.), 
Garzetta orientalis Gray Bonap. Consp. ii. pp. 118, 119 (1857). 
Garzetta nigripes (Zemm.), 
Herodias melanopus (Wagl.), Gould, Handb. B. Austr. ii. p. 804 (1865). 
Garzetta nivea (G'mel.), Tacz. Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 1877, p. 159. 
Gray, Zool, Miscell. pp. 19, 20 (1831). 
The Little Egret is a very rare accidental visitor to the British Islands. 
The last known occurrence of this bird is that of an example which was 
shot on the 4th of January, 1881, a few miles north of Scarborough 
(Harper, ‘ Zoologist,? 1881, p. 213). Ten years previously an example was 
killed on the 3rd of June, 1870, near Exeter (Gatcombe, ‘ Zoologist,’ 1870, 
p- 2308). During the previous thirty-five years no reliable instance of the 
appearance of this bird in our islands is recorded, the alleged occurrences 
in Morayshire (Gordon, ‘ Zoologist,’ 1844, p. 513) and in Warwickshire 
(Christie, ‘Mag. Nat. Hist.’ 1836, p. 647) being very doubtful. About 
1854 an example was obtained near Norwich, and another near Yarmouth 
about the same date. Two examples are said to have been obtained in 
Cornwall about 1825, one in Hampshire in July 1822, and one in Devon- 
shire in 1816. The alleged occurrences of this bird in Ireland and in 
Wales at the close of the last century cannot be relied on. 
The range of the Little Egret is not such a northern one as that of the 
VOL. II. 21 
