ARDEID.l^:. 



365 



THE SQUACCO HERON. 

 Ardea ralloides, Scopoli. 



More than forty examples of tliis little Heron have been taken 

 in the British Islands since 1775, when a specimen was killed 

 in Wiltshire. The other counties visited by it are Hants (and the 

 Isle of Wight), Dorset, Somerset, Devon, Cornwall (about a dozen 

 instances), Brecon, Salop, Notts, Suffolk, Norfolk, Lincolnshire, 

 Yorkshire and Cumberland. In Scotland one has been shot on the 

 Glasgow Canal, and another at Dalmahoy. In Ireland, three have 

 been obtained in cos. Cork and Waterford, one each in Kerry 

 and King's County, and one in Londonderry on November 23rd 

 1881 : an unusually late date. With very few exceptions, hoAever, 

 these visitors have arrived in spring or summer, and have been in 

 immature plumage. 



On the Continent the Squacco Heron is only a straggler to Poland, 

 Northern Germany, Denmark, Holland, Belgium and the north of 

 France ; but it is not uncommon in the valley of the Loire, where 

 I believe ic breeds. South of that line and of the Alpine ranges, it 



