GREAT WHITE HERON. 277 



Monquhitter, Aberdeenshire, in March, 1847, as recorded in 

 Macgillivray's British Birds, on the authority of the Kev. James 

 Smith, who furnished Dr Macgillivray with the full particulars of 

 its capture. 



THE GEEAT WHITE HERON. 



ARDEA ALBA. 



IN the works of Dr Macgillivray and Mr Yarrell, mention is made 

 of the occurrence of this noble-looking Heron in Haddingtonshire, 

 oh 9th June, 1840; and I have been informed by the Earl of 

 Haddington that the bird, which is in magnificent plumage, is still 

 preserved in the collection at Tyninghame House, East Lothian. 

 This appears to be the only instance of the occurrence of this splendid 

 bird on the mainland of Scotland; but I find, on referring to Mr 

 Dunn's copy of the Historia Naturalis Orcadensis, that one of the 

 authors has stated, in manuscript, that two specimens were met 

 with on the island of Damsay, in Orkney. No other particulars, 

 however, are given. 



A full description of the Haddingtonshire specimen, which was 

 mistaken by Macgillivray for a new species, and named by him 

 Erodius Victoria}, will be found in Part II. of the 'Manual of 

 British Ornithology' published by that author in 1842; but, in the 

 fourth volume of his larger work, published ten years later, he has 

 withdrawn the name Victoria^, and doubtfully referred the specimen 

 to the Egretta Nigrirostris of Bonaparte's " Comparative List," page 

 47, No. 329, European species. 



Sir William Jardine, in referring to the same specimen, remarks 

 that, during the winter of 1840-41, several " White Herons" were 

 " seen and killed both in England and Scotland which, it is little 

 doubt, were egrets of one species or other."* Notices of these 

 appeared chiefly in the newspapers the peculiar colour and 

 appearance of the birds having drawn upon them general attention. 

 The season was remarkable for the intensity of the cold. This 

 author also states that, in the same winter, a ' White Heron ' was 

 seen several times upon the shores of the Solway, on the English 

 side, above Port Carlisle, and that it may have been identical with 

 the great egret. There is always more or less uncertainty 



* Birds of Great Britain and Ireland, vol. iii., 1842, p. 135. 



