184 ARDEID^. 



say that in March, 1826, at a sale in Southampton, an Egret, 

 supposed to have been shot in the neighbourhood, fetched 

 £5 5s. Upon this the late W. Christy, jun,, adds (p. 647) : — 

 "I have a very fine specimen of the Egret, said to have 

 been shot at or near Sutton Coldfield, in Warwickshire. 

 I bought it of a very respectable bird-stuffer, who assured 

 me he had received the bird direct from the person who shot 

 it. Still I confess I had my doubts, and bought the skin 

 more for its beauty than as an authentic British specimen. 

 However, during a visit in April last to Lord Mount Norris, 

 at Arley Hall, I happened to meet with a gentleman who 

 assured me that within the last few years he had known of 

 three specimens of the Egret, and two of the Little Bittern, 

 having been shot at Sutton Coldfield. I therefore think 

 there is no doubt of its occurrence in this country, though 

 it must be classed among our rarest birds." A bird in the 

 collection of Dr. Diamond of Twickenham, labelled as "shot 

 by Roger Stoughton, near Sparham, Norfolk, 1831," has 

 proved to be the American species Ardea candid'issima (Tr. 

 Norw. Soc. iii. p. 565), but the specimen is known to have 

 been stufted by Hadgraft, who had dealings with America, 

 and an unintentional substitution is more than probable. 



Gould, in his ' Birds of Great Britain,' vol. iv., gives the 

 following particulars, furnished by Lord Hotham, respecting 

 a specimen belonging to Mr. James Hall, of Scorborough, 

 near Beverley, who writes : " The Little Egret in my posses- 

 sion was killed by a labourer with a stick in Ake [Aike] Carr, 

 near Beverley, about 1840, and was brought to me, tied up 

 in a pocket-handkerchief, covered with black wet mud and 

 blood, in which state it was sent to Mr. Reed, of Doncaster, 

 who restored it in a marvellous manner." Another York- 

 shire occurrence rests on the authority of Mr. Robert P. 

 Harper, who states (Zool. 1881, p. 213) that an example 

 in very fair plumage, but wanting the long occipital feathers, 

 was then in the possession of Mr. Thompson, a bird-pre- 

 server, and had been shot near Haybourn Wyke, near the 

 town of Scarborough, on the 4th January, 1881 ; a remark- 

 able time of year for a species which hardly winters to the 



