188 ARDEID.E. 



near Kingsbridge, in Devonshire, in the latter end of 

 October, 1805, had been seen for several days in the same 

 field, attending some cows, and picking up insects, which 

 were found in its stomach. It was by no means shy, and 

 was fired at a second time before it was secured. The 

 situation w^here it was shot is the southern promontory of 

 Devon, very near the coast, between the Start and the 

 Prawl." It was placed in Montagu's collection by Mr. 

 Nicholas Luscombe, of Kingsbridge. The specimen, which 

 is a young bird, and proved on dissection to be a female, is 

 still [1884] preserved in the British Museum. The Author 

 learned from the Rev. Robert Holdsworth, that it was shot 

 by Mr. F. Cornish, at South Allington, in the parish of 

 Chivelstone. 



In ' The Zoologist ' for 1851 (p. 3116), there is a record 

 by Mr. A. Clevland, that he had obtained a very fine speci- 

 men of the ' Little White Heron,' which was shot in the 

 south of Devon in the month of April of that year, but 

 no description or further particulars are given. Mr. H. 

 Stevenson included this species in * The Birds of Norfolk ' 

 (ii. p. 151), on the authority of Mr. Joseph Clarke, who 

 informed him that a young bird killed at Martham, near 

 Yarmouth, in 1827, was in the Saffron Walden Museum ; 

 but the specimen is no longer in existence, having been de- 

 stroyed by moth ; and as neither Mr. Stevenson nor Mr. 

 J.H. Gurney, jun., mention the Buif-backed Heron in their 

 recently published (1884) lists of Norfolk birds, it would 

 seem that its antecedents have not borne investigation. 



The Buff-backed Heron is essentially a southern bird ; 

 and Mr. W. E. Clarke records an adult male, shot on the 

 Obedska ' bara,' on the 29th of May, as the first known 

 occurrence in Hungary or her provinces (Ibis, 1884, p, 146). 

 On the Danube it appears to be almost unknown, and 

 although stated by Filippi to swarm on the Caspian, there 

 can be little doubt that he mistook for it the Squacco Heron 

 which has proved to be abundant there, but which he does 

 not mention (Ibis, 1884, p. 429). It is a very rare visitor 

 to the south of France, Italy, Sicily, Malta, and Greece ; 



