LITTLE EGRET. 523 



recently found in England. One was shot in Ireland in the 

 year 1793. That it was formerly very frequent here, 

 appears by some of the old bills of fare : in the famous 

 feast of Archbishop Nevil, we find no less than a thousand 

 Asterides, Egrets, or Egrittes, as it is differently spelt. 

 Perhaps the esteem they were in as a delicacy during those 

 days, occasioned their extirpation in our islands ; abroad 

 they arc still common, especially in the southern parts of 

 Europe, where they appear in flocks."" Dr. Fleming re- 

 marks, " that it is possible the Lapwing may have been 

 there referred to, as the most common bird with a crest." 

 To this opinion Mr. Selby subscribes. Aigrette and egret 

 are common terms for a tuft of feathers ; and the Little 

 Egret appears to have been much too rare a species in this 

 country to have afforded the supply. That the Little 

 Egret ought, however, to be retained in our catalogues as a 

 British Bird, which has been denied, the following evi- 

 dence will sufficiently prove. 



Mr. Templeton in his Catalogue of the Vertebrate Ani- 

 mals of Ireland, says of this bird, " There is a specimen in 

 the Dublin Museum, which was shot in the harbour of 

 Cork, in 1792." 



The Rev. L. Jenyns, in his Manual of British Vertebrate 

 Animals, says of this bird, " In April 1824, two specimens 

 are recorded to have been killed at Penzance in Cornwall, 

 and one of them to have been preserved." In this case, I 

 believe, Mr. Couch, the author of the Cornish Fauna, was 

 the authority. 



J. C. Dale, Esq., the well-known Entomologist, has re- 

 corded his memorandum of one having been shot near the 

 river Stour, at Christchurch, Hants, in the beginning of 

 July 1822, by the late Mr. William Lockyer, who sold it 

 to Mr. Barrow, of Christchurch, by whom it was preserved. 



