LITTLE EGRET. 549 



1793. That it was formerly very frequent here, appears by 

 some of the old bills of fare : in the famous feast of Arch- 

 bishop Nevil, we find no less than a thousand Asteri'des, 

 Egrets, or Egrittes, as it is differently spelt. Perhaps the 

 esteem they were in as a delicacy during- those days, occa- 

 sioned their extirpation in our islands ; abroad they are still 

 common, especially in the southern parts of Europe, where 

 they appear in flocks." Dr. Fleming- remarks, " that it is 

 possible the Lapwing may have been there referred to, as the 

 most common bird with a crest." To this opinion Mr. Selby 

 subscribes. Aigrette and egret are common terms for a tuft 

 of feathers ; and the Little Egret appears to have been much 

 too rare a species in this country to have afforded the supply. 

 That the Little Egret ought, however, to be retained in our 

 catalogues as a British Bird, — which has been denied, — the 

 following evidence will sufficiently prove. 



Mr. Templeton, in his Catalogue of the Vertebrate Ani- 

 mals of L-eland, says of this bird, " There is a specimen in 

 the Dublin Museum, which was shot in the harbour of Cork, 

 in 1792." 



The Rev. L. Jenyns, in his Manual of British Vertebrate 

 Animals, says of this bird, " Li April 1824, two specimens 

 are recorded to have been killed at Penzance in Cornwall, 

 and one of them to have been preserved." In this case, I 

 believe, Mr. Couch, the author of the Cornish Fauna, was 

 the authority. 



J. C. Dale, Esq. the well-known Entomologist, has re- 

 corded his memorandum of one having been shot near the 

 river Stour, at Christchurch, Hants, in the beginning of 

 July 1822, by the late Mr. William Lockyer, who sold it to 

 Mr. Barrow, of Christchurch, by whom it was preserved. 



The late W. Christy, Jun. published the following para- 

 graph in the Magazine of Natural History for 1836, page 

 647 : — " I have a very fine specimen of the Egret, said to 



