150 BIRDS OF GUERNSEY. 



trees quite big enough for Herons to build in, 

 supposing they were allowed to do so, which would 

 not be likely at the present time. The number of 

 Herons in the Channel Islands seems to me to be 

 considerably increased in the autumn, probably by 

 wanderers from the Heronries on the south coast 

 of Devon and Dorset ; on the Dart and the Exe, 

 and near Poole. 



The Heron is included in Professor Ansted's list, 

 but only marked as occurring in Guernsey. There 

 is no specimen at present in the Museum. 



129. Purple Heron. Ardea purj^urea, hinnseus. 

 French, "Heron pourpre." — The Purple Heron 

 is an occasional accidental wanderer to all the 

 Islands. Mr. MacCulloch writes me word, " I have 

 notes of that beautiful bird, the Purple Heron, being 

 killed here (Guernsey) in May, 1845, and in 1849 ; 

 also in Alderney on the 8th May, 1867." Curiously 

 enough Mr. Kodd records the capture of one, a 

 female, near the Lizard, in Cornwall, late in April 

 of the same year.* When at Alderney this summer 

 (1878) I was told that a Heron of some sort, but 

 certainly not a Common Heron, had been shot in 

 that Island about six weeks before my visit on the 

 27th of June. Accordingly I went the next morning 

 to the birdstuffer, Mr. Grieve, and there I found 

 the bird and the person who shot it, who told me 



- See ' Zoologist' for 1867, p. 829. 



