158 AKDEID.E. 



THE SQUACCO HERON, 



Arde'a comata, Pallas. 

 „ ralloicles, Scopoli. 



Has been once obtained ; 



A specimen having been shot in Killeagh Bog, a few miles from 

 Youghal, on the 26th of May, 1849. To Dr. J. R. Harvey of 

 Cork I am indebted for all the information which I possess re- 

 specting it. The occurrence of a rare bird of tins family being 

 communicated to that gentleman by Mr. Samuel Moss of Youghal, 

 who preserved the specimen, a description of it was recpiested, 

 the perusal of winch led to the belief that it must be the squacco 

 heron. The bird was kindly sent to Cork for Dr. Harvey's exami- 

 nation, and the following result communicated to me: — " It is un- 

 doubtedly the Ardea ralloides ; the descriptions and measurements 

 (as closely as I can test them by comparison with a mounted bird 

 fixed in a case) are so near as to leave no hesitation in the matter. 

 The only difference between the specimen and the descriptions in 

 Temminck, Yarrell, and Jenyns, worth noticing, is, that the belly 

 is not pure white ; — if has a good deal of the buff tinge anteriorly 

 and along the sides. The plume of feathers, which have the 

 little terminal bordering beautifully marked, are from three to four 

 inches long : perhaps they are not fully grown. I should suppose 

 the bird to have been adult ; its length was eighteen inches. The 

 sex was un-noted by the preserver/' Tins bird was probably one 

 of the same flight, or influenced to migrate farther westward than 

 usual by the same causes which induced the species to visit 

 the extreme portion of England, in that direction, in May last. 

 Mr. E. H. Rodd, of Penzance, records Ins having seen three of 

 these birds in the course of being preserved, on the 15th of May, 

 1849 ; two of which were shot near the Land's End, and the 

 other — while perched on a tree — in the parish of St. Hilary, 

 Cornwall.* 



* Zoologist, July 1849, p. 2498. 



