22 GRALLATORES. ARDEA. HERON- 



under the name of Egrets or Egrittes, were of this species, 

 it must have been extremely abundant at that period, to 

 have admitted of a thousand being served up at a single en- 

 tertainment. I am, however, much inclined to favour the 

 opinion of Dr FLEMING, as advanced in his History of Bri- 

 tish Animals, and to think that some other bird was there 

 signified, most probably, as he suggests, the Lapwing or 

 Pewit (Vanellus cristatus), which also possesses a long occi- 

 pital crest, and which always has been, and still continues to 

 be, remarkably plentiful throughout Britain. For other- 

 wise (as he says), under the supposition that the Ardea gar- 

 zetta was the bird alluded to, it is very difficult to account 

 for the silence of our early writers in regard to this species 

 being native in Britain. WILLOUGHBY, in his description of 

 the Lesser White Heron (which is without doubt the bird 

 now under consideration), expressly states, that the speci- 

 men from which it was taken was obtained in Venice ; and 

 he never even alludes to this bird as inhabiting or visiting 

 the British Islands. PENNANT is the only writer who ad- 

 duces any evidence of the Egret having been killed in Bri- 

 tain ; and even that evidence is far from being conclusive, 

 Rarest vi. as it only amounts to his having once received from Angle- 

 sea the feathers of a bird shot there, which he conjectured 

 to be those of the Egret. Under these circumstances, its 

 claim to rank as a British bird stands upon nearly the same 

 ground as that of the preceding species (Ardea alba), or the 

 Great White Heron. Its geographical distribution is con- 

 fined to the Old World ; but it is represented in America 

 by a closely-allied species (with which by some authors it 

 has been confounded), viz. Ardea Carolinensis of WILSON'S 

 North American Ornithology (Ardea candidissima of WAG- 

 LER). 



In Europe it is sometimes found in Germany, where it is 

 migratory ; as also in France and Italy. It abounds in 

 Turkey, Hungary, and Poland ; and also occurs in Sicily 



