CXIX. 



ARDEA PURPUREA. (Linn. 



Crested Purple Heron. 



With the exception of the Common Heron, this beautiful 

 tribe of birds has but little claim to be accounted British ; 

 all of the species being very rare visitants of our shores. 

 From an eye witness of its habits (INIr. J. D. Hoy, whose 

 Ornithological researches on the Continent have added 

 many of the rarer eggs to om* cabinets) I have the following 

 information regarding the present species. " The Puiple 

 Heron does not begin to breed so early as the Common 

 Heron, the end of May being the time of incubation : it is 

 of a shy and retired disposition, keeping for the most part 

 amongst reeds and woody swamps. It has much the habits 

 of the Bitteni, and when standing on the watch for its prey, 

 has at a little distance, something the appearance of that 

 bird, with the neck very much bent and drawn in between 

 the shoulders. 



They breed in society, like the Common Heron, very 

 frequently on low trees, in plantations of Willow and Alder, 

 in the vicinity of rivers, and large inland waters : the nests 

 being often only a few feet from the ground upon which they 

 are likewise sometimes placed, in swamps overgrown with 

 tall rushes, and in extensive tracts of reeds ; they are large 

 and flat, and are either composed entirely of sticks, finer 

 towards the inside, or lined witli pieces of dried sedge and 

 rushes. The eggs are commonly four, rarely five in number, 

 and differ considerably in size and shape as well as in 

 colom-, some being considerably darker than Fig. 1 of the 

 Plate. 



