156 ardeidjE. 



of 1841, a most interesting pet bird of this species, appropriately 

 called there Camelo-potdo. 



The purple heron has many times occurred in the eastern and 

 southern counties of England ; but is only known to have visited 

 Scotland once.* It seems not to range northward on the Euro- 

 pean continent. 



THE EGRET, 



Ardea garzetta, Linn. 



Is of extremely rare occurrence, 



Mr. E. Ball, Director of the University Museum, Dublin, has 

 kindly copied for my use the following entry, made in the ' Dona- 

 tion Book' of that institution.— " Dec. 1788. Eev. J. Elgee, Wex- 

 ford, presented a bird of the species called the small white heron, 

 whose present existence in the British Islands has been doubted." 

 The specimen is now gone ; but the remark — " whose present exist- 

 ence, &c." — leaves no uncertainty on my mind that the A. Garzetta 

 is meant. The allusion is probably to Pennant's British Zoology, 

 published in 1776, where it is remarked of this species — " We 

 once received out of Anglesea the feathers of a bird shot there, 

 which we suspect to be the egret ; this is the only instance, 

 perhaps, of its being found in our country. That formerly this 

 bird was vjgry frequent here appears by some of the old bills of 

 fare, Sec." (Vol. ii. Appendix, p. 536.) Pennant adopts the name 

 of egret for this bird ; but " little white heron " is his first quoted 

 synonym. The name used in the Donation Book appears in Wil- 

 loughby, under the head of " Lesser White Heron, Ardea alba 

 minor" where it is remarked : — " The second lesser white heron 

 of Aldrovandus is the very same with this," with the addition 

 respecting the latter species : — " This, I say, is without all doubt 

 the same with our small white heron ; neither (as I judge) doth 

 it differ from the Garzetta of Aldrovand," p. 280.- 



* A notice of this one, shot in Aberdeenshire, about the beginning of March 1847, 

 appears in the Zoologist for July 1849, p. 2497, by the Rev. James Smith. 



