15 



GEEAT WHITE HERON. 



ARDEA ALBA, Linn. 



Ardea alba, Linn. S. N. i. p. 239 (1766) ; Yarr. ed'. 4, iv. 



p. 177; Dresser, vi. p. 231. 

 Ardea egretta, Naum. ix. p. 85, xiii. p. 255. 

 Egretta nigrh'ostris et alba, Macg. iv. pp. 460, 465. 



Heron aigrette, French ; Silberreiher, German ; Garza 

 blanca, Spanish. 



This beautiful bird rarely straggles so far to the 

 westward as Great Britain ; some eighteen or twenty 

 have been recorded as "seen," and eight or nine of 

 them obtained in England and Scotland. A very fine 

 adult bird, with fully-developed dorsal plumes, was 

 killed in Thorney Fen, Cambridgeshire, in May or June 

 1849, and is specially referred to here for the reason 

 that it is preserved in the collection of my friend 

 Colonel C. J. Strong, of Thorpe Hall, near Peter- 

 borough, who invited Mr. Thorburn to inspect it for 

 the purposes of this work; I may mention, however, 

 that the figure in the Plate was mainly taken by the 

 latter gentleman from hving specimens at Lilford. 



My own acquaintance with this Heron in a wild 

 state is principally confined to the marshes of Epirus 



