45 G ARDEID^. 



seventh volume of tlie Reports. Mr. Stricldand stated, 

 " that this bird had been unjustly excluded from the cata- 

 logue of occasional visiters to this country by late authors, 

 as he could prove on unquestionable authority that it had 

 been killed of late years in more cases than one. The first 

 instance was twelve or thirteen years ago : a bird of this spe- 

 cies was seen for some weeks about Hornsea Moor, in the 

 East Riding of Yorkshire ; it was some time after presented 

 to the author, in whose collection it is at present, in perfect 

 preservation. Another, in full summer plumage, was killed 

 by a labourer in the fields of James Hall, Esq. of Scar- 

 borough, near Beverley, about three years ago, and is now in 

 the possession of that gentleman. Another specimen of this 

 bird is in the collection of Mr. Foljambe, of Osberton, with 

 a label on the case stating it to have been killed near that 

 place. A careful examination of these specimens will, Mr. 

 Strickland has no doubt, prove that this bird is properly sepa- 

 rated from the large Egret of North America, which has been 

 frequently j^laced in our collections for the British species." 

 To these I may add a notice of one killed in Lincolnshire, 

 but where the specimen is deposited I am not aware ; and 

 lastly, Mr. Frederick Holme sent me the measurements of a 

 specimen shot on the Isis in Oxfordshire, in September 1883. 

 This beautiful species of Heron was included in the 

 Swedish Fauna by Linnaeus and Retzius, who say of it, 

 Habitat in Scania^ visa ad Araslof. M. Nilsson, Avho is 

 now Professor of Natural History at Lund, the capital of 

 Scania, says, in his Ornithology of Sweden, vol. ii. p. 88, that 

 it has not been found there since within his knowledge. It is 

 an accidental visiter to Germany, France, Provence, and Italy. 

 Has been taken in Corsica and Sardinia ; but is more com- 

 mon among the islands of the Grecian Archipelago, in Tur- 

 key, and in Hungary. Mr. Strickland says it frequents 

 the salt marshes west of Smyrna. Messrs. Dickson and Ross 



