452 ARDEID^E. 



The Purple Heron may even be considered rather common 

 in Holland, from whence adult birds and their eggs are not 

 unfrequently sent to the London market. 



The habits of the Purple Heron are more like those of the 

 Bittern than of the Heron last described, preferring dense reed 

 beds, morasses, and marshy swamps, abounding in luxuriant 

 vegetation, under cover of which it conceals itself, and among 

 which it makes its nest on the ground, laying three eggs of 

 pale asparagus-green colour, two inches four lines long, by 

 one inch seven lines in breadth. The food of this species 

 consists of small mammalia, reptiles, fishes, and aquatic 

 insects. 



The Purple Heron is found occasionally in Germany, is, 

 as before observed, rather common in Holland, and in the 

 low marshy districts of France. M. Necker says they are 

 most frequently seen in Switzerland at the end of April or 

 the beginning of May, and some few remain in that country 

 to breed ; it is found also in Provence and in Italy. It in- 

 habits Nubia, and has been taken in other parts of Africa as 

 far south as the Cape of Good Hope. Eastward of Europe, 

 the Russian naturalists found it in the countries near the 

 Black and the Caspian Seas ; it inhabits the marshes of the 

 rivers and lakes of Tartary ; Major Franklin exhibited speci- 

 mens at the Zoological Society that were brought by himself 

 from India ; Mr. Selby says it is found in the Philippine 

 Isles ; and Dr. Horsfield includes it among the Birds of Java. 



The adult bird has the beak yellow, darkest in colour at 

 the base ; the lore and irides yellow ; the top of the head, the 

 occiput, and the elongated occipital plumes, black, tinged 

 with blue ; cheeks and sides of the neck fawn colour, with 

 descending streaks of bluish black ; back and wing-coverts 

 dark slate grey ; the elongated filamentous feathers chestnut ; 

 tail-feathers bluish grey, the two central feathers dark slate 

 grey ; the chin pale buff; the neck reddish buff, the elon- 



