460 ARDEID.E. 



have been shot at or near Sutton Coldfield, in Warwickshire. 

 1 bought it of a very respectable bird-stufFer, who assured me 

 he had received the bird direct from the person wlio shot it. 

 Still I confess I had my doubts, and bought the skin more 

 for its beauty than as an authentic British specimen. How- 

 ever, during a visit in April last to Lord Mount Norris, at 

 Arley Hall, I happened to meet with a gentleman, Avho 

 assured me that within the last few years he had known of 

 three specimens of the Egret, and two of the Little Bittern, 

 having been shot at Sutton Coldfield. I therefore think 

 there is no doubt of its occurrence in this country, though it 

 must be classed among our rarest birds." 



The Rev. Robert Holdsworth, of Brixham, to whom I am 

 indebted for many valuable communications in Natural His- 

 tory, sent me word that in 1816 a bird was shot on Flatoars, 

 a shoal in the river Dart, dry at low-tide, which exactly cor- 

 responded Avith the description of the Egret in Montagu's 

 Ornithological Dictionary as a bird of the second year, being 

 tinged with grey on the neck and breast. 



The Little Egret has occurred occasionally in Germany 

 and in France ; there is a specimen in the Museum at Ge- 

 neva that was obtained in Switzerland : it occurs in Spain and 

 in Provence, at Genoa occasionally in the month of May, 

 and in Italy, in Sardinia, in Sicily, from whence I have seen 

 a specimen very lately, — the Grecian Archipelago, and in 

 Turkey. Messrs. Dickson and Ross have sent the Zoological 

 Society an example from Erzeroom, and M. Hohenacker, 

 the Russian naturalist, includes it among the birds of the 

 country between the Black and the Caspian Seas. 



The Little Egret breeds in marshes, and produces four or 

 five white eggs. 



The adult bird has the beak black ; the lore green ; the 

 irides yellow ; the whole of the plumage a pure and delicate 

 white ; the feathers of the occiput and the bottom of the neck 



