BUFF-BACKED HERON. 527 



cated to the Liimeaii Society by Colonel Montagu on the 

 5th of May 1807, and appears in the ninth volume of the 

 Transactions of that Society, page 197. A more detailed 

 account was afterwards published by Montagu in the Sup- 

 plement to his Ornithological Dictionary, from which some 

 of the following particulars are derived. 



"This elegant little species of Heron, which was shot 

 near Kingsbridge in Devonshire in the latter end of October 

 1805, had been seen for several days in the same field, 

 attending some cows, and picked up insects, which were 

 found in its stomach. It was by no means shy, and was 

 fired at a second time before it was secured. The situation 

 where it was shot is the southern promontory of Devon, 

 very near the coast, between the Start and the Prawl." I 

 have since learned from the Rev. Robert Holdsworth, that 

 this ornithological prize was shot by Mr. F. Cornish, at 

 South Allington, in the parish of Chivelstone. It was 

 placed in Colonel Montagu's collection by Mr. Nicholas 

 Duscombe, of Kingsbridge, and the specimen is still pre- 

 served in the British Museum. It is a young bird, and 

 proved on dissection to be a female. 



This specimen, Colonel Montagu observes, " appears to 

 be allied to that variety found at Bologna in Italy, which is 

 described to have the top of the head and the neck nearly 

 of a saiFron colour; the breast the same, but paler, per- 

 haps a sexual distinction. The legs in that variety are 

 said to be saffron colour : it must, however, be recollected, 

 that the colour of the fleshy parts, as well as the plumage, 

 sometimes depend on age." 



The plumage here referred to resembles that of the adult 

 bird of this species, which is now ascertained to be found in 

 the warmer parts of Europe, and also in Asia, but is not an 

 inhabitant of America, the Ardea aqumoctialis, with which 



