Rarest vie 
sitant. 
22 GRALLATORES. ARDEA. HERON: 
under the name of Egrets or Egrittes, were of this species, 
it must have been extremely abundant at that period, to 
have admitted of a thousand being served up at a single en- 
tertainment. I am, however, much inclined to favour the 
opinion of Dr Fremrinc, as advanced in his History of Bri- 
tish Animals, and to think that some other bird was there 
signified, most probably, as he suggests, the Lapwing or 
Pewit (Vanellus cristatus), which also possesses a long occi- 
pital crest, and which always has been, and still continues to 
be, remarkably plentiful throughout Britain. For other- 
wise (as he says), under the supposition that the Ardea gar- 
zetta was the bird alluded to, it is very difficult to account 
for the silence of our early writers in regard to this species 
being native in Britain. Wutiovensy, in his description of 
the Lesser White Heron (which is without doubt the bird 
now under consideration), expressly states, that the speci- 
men from which it was taken was obtained in Venice; and 
he never even alludes to this bird as inhabiting or visiting 
the British Islands. Prnnanrt is the only writer who ad- 
duces any evidence of the Egret having been killed in Bri- 
tain; and even that evidence is far from being conclusive, 
as it only amounts to his having once received from Angle- 
sea the feathers of a bird shot there, which he conjectured 
to be those of the Egret. Under these circumstances, its 
claim to rank as a British bird stands upon nearly the same 
ground as that of the preceding species (Ardea alba), or the 
Great White Heron. Its geographical distribution is con- 
fined to the Old World; but it is represented in America 
by a closely-allied species (with which by some authors it 
has been confounded), viz. Ardea Carolinensis of Wi.son’s 
North American Ornithology (Ardea candidissima of W ac- 
LER). 
In Europe it is sometimes found in Germany, where it is 
migratory ; as also in France and Italy. It abounds in 
Turkey, Hungary, and Poland: and also occurs in Sicily 
