CLASSIFIED NOTES 547 



THE HERONS AND BITTERNS 1 



[OiiDEB: Ciconiiformes. SUBORDER: Ardece. FAMILY: Ardeidcv] 



PURPLE-HERON {.inlea purpiirea Linnaeus. French, heron pourpre; German, Pur- 

 purreiher; Italian, airorte rosso]. 



1. Description. Distinguished from the common-heron by the predominant chesnut of the 

 under parts. Total length about 30 in. [762 mm.]. The sexes are alike in coloration. The general 

 colour of the upper parts is brown, slightly glossed with bronze-green ; top of the head and 

 hack of the neck glossy black, with two elongated white plumes; lower neck reddish chesnut; 

 scapulars and longer secondaries elongated, and disintegrated towards the tips, which are rufous, 

 while the bases of the feathers are grey ; wrist of the wing chesnut ; lesser and greater coverts 

 washed with the same colour; primaries and secondaries and tail greyish black; throat white; 

 feathers of the chest elongated, creamy buff at their bases, gradually becoming more rufous 

 towards the tip, margined on their inner webs with black; sides of the face and neck bright 

 chesnut, marked longitudinally with black ; middle of the chest and abdomen black ; sides of the 

 chest deep purplish chesnut ; iris pale yellow ; upper mandible brownish black ; lower man- 

 dible brownish yellow, yellow at the tip ; cere greenish yellow ; tarsi and feet black on anterior 

 face, brownish yellow behind ; bare portion of thigh yellow. The adult in winter plumage is 

 similar to the above, but without the two long plumes on the nape, the black nuchal-plumes 

 shorter, and the general tone of the plumage duller, [w. p. p. and T. w.] 



2. Distribution. This species breeds in Africa and on the Continent of Europe south of 

 the Baltic. Its northern breeding limits are mid-France, Holland, in small numbers South 

 Germany, commonly in Austro-Hungary, and in Russia on the lower Dniester, Dnieper, the 

 Finsk marshes, the governments of Kief, Ekaterinoslav, Kharkof, and Voronesh, on the Volga 

 to 48 J", and the lower Ural (Buturlin). From these limits its range extends to the Mediter- 

 ranean and Black Seas, and also to Sicily, while in Asia it breeds in Asia Minor, Palestine, 

 Mesopotamia, Transcaucasia, and Transcaspia, but from India east to China and the Malay 

 Archipelago it is replaced by an allied race. In Africa it breeds not only in the north, but also 

 in the Canaries (rarely), Madeira, the Cape Verde Isles, and also in South Africa. European 

 birds are migratory, wintering in Africa. As a casual visitor it has been obtained in Scan- 

 dinavia, Heligoland (once), N. Germany, and about fifty times in the British Isles, chiefly on 

 the south-east coast of England. [F. c. R. J.] 



GREAT WHITE-HERON [Egretta Alba (Linnajus); Ardta dlba Limueus. Great white- 

 egret. French, aigrette blanche; German, SUberreiher ; Italian, sgarza, airone bianco 

 maggiore]. 



1. Description. Distinguished from the little-egret by its much larger size [wing 15| 

 in., 393 mm.], and by having the bill shorter than the middle toe and claw. The sexes are 

 alike in coloration. The whole plumage is pure white, the bill black ; from the middle of the 

 back springs a dense bunch of filamentous plumes, reaching far beyond the tail ; another patch 

 of feathers, greatly elongated and similar to those of the back, falls from the sides of the neck 

 and breast; iris yellow; bill black; lores and orbital skin pale green; feet black. The adult 

 in winter differs only in that it is devoid of the ornamental plumes and has the beak yellow. 

 [\v. i>. P. and T. w.] 



2. Distribution. In Europe this species only breeds in the south-east; once in Silesia 

 (1863) ; in three localities in Hungary, formerly in Slavonia, in Servia, Montenegro, Albania, 

 Roumania, and Bulgaria, and in S. Russia, in Bessarabia, the lower Dniester and Dnieper, the 



1 Vol. iv. p. 326. 



