LITTLE EGKET 



21 



examined and recorded by the late Mr. J. Gatcombe, killed 

 at Countess Weir, on the Exe, on June 3rd, 1870, and belong- 

 ing to Mr. E. H. Harbottle, of Topsham, near Exeter." 

 "It is not improbable, however," he continues, " that one 



FIG. 3.- LITTLE EGRET. 



has been obtained in Sussex ; while the late Lord Lilford 

 (B. Northamptonsh. ii, p. 118) adduced some evidence that 

 two were shot near Whittlesea about 1849. 1 There is 



1 In the ' Zoologist ' for 1901, pp. 70-71, Mr. R. Newstead, of the 

 Grosvenor Museum, Chester, states that when overhauling the collection 

 of birds belonging to the Chester Society of Natural Science, he found a 

 Little Egret, labelled on the back of the case " Egret. Male. Shot 

 March, 1826. near Paul Humberside, Yorkshire." In the same number 

 of the ' Zoologist,' p. 107, Mr. J. H. Gurney publishes the following 

 criticism with regard to British-killed Egrets : " In Loudon's ' Magazine 

 of Natural History' for 1836, p. 599, Mr. J. C. Dale, of Glanvilles 

 Wootton, in Dorsetshire, mentions that " at a sale of birds, &c., I attended 

 in March, 1826, at Southampton, was an Egret (a fine specimen), lot 38, 



