HERONS. 



129 



lee side of some hill. They are exceedingly nume- 

 rous in Poole harbour, where as many as a hundred 

 may sometimes be seen fishing. In the summer of 

 1876 a pair built their nest at Littlesea, on the 

 top of some reeds, not more than four feet from 

 the ground : the only chick which was hatched 

 tumbled out of its ark and was drowned. 



PURPLE HERON. Ardea purpurea, L. . 



Yarrell, iv. p. 172 ; Harting, p. 55 ; Dresser, vi. p. 217 ; Seebohm, 

 iL p. 473; Ibis List, p. 108. 



Although the geographical range of the Purple 

 Heron is nearly the same as that of the Common 

 Heron, it is not found so far north, and in England 

 it is only a rare and accidental visitor. One shot at 

 Hyde in this county was presented by Mr. C. Rad- 

 clyffe to the County Museum ; and another was pro- 

 cured in the neighbourhood of Dorchester in 1848. 



SQUACCO HERON. Ardea ralloides, Scopoli. 



Yarrell, iv. p. 191; Dresser, vi. p. 251; Ibis List, p. 109; 

 Ardea comata, Harting, p. 149; Seebohm, ii. p. 486. 



A rare and accidental visitant. One was shot at 

 Encombe in 1865 ; another at Wyke Regis, July i, 

 1867 (Thompson, Zoologist, 1867, p. 915) ; a third, 

 shot by Mr. H. J. Cockeram of Chetnole, at Friar 

 Maine, May 15, 1867 (J. Grant, The Field, May 25, 

 1867). This bird, as Mr. Cockeram informs me, was 

 seen by his keeper for upwards of a week before he 



shot it, and spent nearly the whole day upon the same 



i 



