On the Occurrence in Scotland of the Sqioacco Heron. 217 



southern counties of England. The first was recorded in the 

 minutes of the Linnean Society for 1797, as having been shot 

 at Boyton. A second example was taken in Norfolk in 

 December 1820. No others would appear to have been met 

 with until 1834, when two were procured in the same county. 

 Subsequently, and at irregular intervals, various specimens 

 have been obtained in Hampshire, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, 

 and Cornwall. 



The squacco heron seems to be widely distributed in 

 Africa and Western Asia. It is abundant in Egypt, where it 

 has been observed of late years by Captain Shelby, who 

 remarks that many of the specimens which he shot had been 

 feeding on locusts. It is also mentioned by Dr Tristram 

 as an inhabitant of the Great Sahara, and by Anderssen 

 in his " Birds of Damara Land," where it abounds in the lake 

 region, feeding on insects and frogs. It is a well-known bird 

 on the Zambesi, and is plentiful in the Transvaal, besides 

 being an inhabitant of Madagascar. On all the shores of the 

 Mediterranean the species may be said to be common, and it is, 

 doubtless, from such localities that all the stragglers hitherto 

 found in Britain have come. 



Anderssen describes the iris as pale yellow, the bill of a 

 transparent whitish horn colour at the tip, the base of the 

 upper mandible is bright greenish-yellow, and this colour 

 extends to the base of the nostrils ; the under mandible is 

 also greenish-}^ellow^ ; the tibia, tarsus, and toes are dusky- 

 green, lightest on the tibia and the upper part of the tarsus; 

 the under surface of the toes is yellowish. This description 

 supplies a correct idea of the colours, which, of course, 

 cannot be observed in a stuffed specimen. 



The natural haunts of the squacco heron are marshes, 

 maro'ins of seas, lakes, and rivers, and in such localities it 

 subsists on small fishes, reptiles, Crustacea, and insects. 



I am indebted to the Duke of Buccleuch for permission to 

 exhibit the specimen at this meeting. 



