146 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
Sir Thomas Browne included the above species in his 
“Account of Norfolk Birds,” but even should this be 
so, he gives us no reason to suppose that it was then 
otherwise than an accidental visitant. Of recent authors 
Selby is the first to mention the Purple Heron in con- 
nection with this county, stating in his “ British 
Ornithology” that in the month of May, 1830, a 
fine male of this species, killed in Norfolk, came into 
his possession,* and its mate into that of Sir William 
Jardine. He also adds in a foot note, “since writing 
the above I have heard of three other specimens,—two 
killed in Norfolk and another near London.” To this may 
be also added the testimony of the late Mr. Hoy, who, 
in recording the occurrence of an immature specimen in 
1835 (“‘“Mae. Nat. Hist.,” new series, vol.i., p. 117), “near 
the mouth of the Woodbridge river in Suffolk,” says, “I 
have also known two or three individuals to have been 
met with in Norfolk within a few years.” The latter, as 
well as the two mentioned in Mr. Selby’s foot note, are 
no doubt included amongst those of which further par- 
ticulars have been given by local writers. Mr. Hunt, under 
the name of Ardea caspia, or “ African heron,” records 
a specimen as shot ‘“‘a few years since near Ormesby,” 
which is no doubt the same bird which, in Sir William 
Hooker’s MS., is described as shot at Filby in 1810. In 
the same MS., also, under the name of the “ African 
heron,” the immature bird in the Norwich Museum (No. 
202b), procured near Yarmouth, and presented by the 
three inches long; back heron coloured, intermixed with long 
white feathers; the strong feathers black; the breast black and 
white, most black; the legs and feet not green, but an ordinary 
dark cock colour.” 
* Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., who has recently had an opportunity 
of inspecting the late Mr. Selby’s collection at Twizell house, 
informs me that it contains a fine adult purple heron, most 
probably the one sent from Norfolk. 
