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Devonshire ; but Mr. Gatcombe informs me it is very rarely found in the latter county, and he 

 has only seen one specimen killed there, a young bird, which he found hanging up in a 

 poulterer's shop in Stonehouse, and ascertained that it had been killed near that town. 

 Mr. J. C. Mansel-Pleydell states (Orn. and Cone. Dorset, p. 28) that Mr. Radclyffe shot one at 

 Hyde, in Dorset, some years ago; and Mr. Henning possessed a specimen, purchased in 1848, 

 which had been shot near Dorchester. Yarrell refers to instances of specimens having been 

 obtained in Suffolk ; and Mr. Stevenson, who gives full details respecting the earlier records of 

 its occurrence in Norfolk, says that he only knows of two examples obtained there of late years, 

 one of which was shot on Hoveton broad on the 1st July, 1862, by Lord Lilford, and the second 

 was purchased in the Norwich fish-market by Mr. S. Bligh on the 28th October, 1865, and is now 

 in Mr. Stevenson's collection. Mr. Cordeaux also (B. of Humber Distr. p. 103) cites instances 

 of its occurrence in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. It appears to have only been met with in 

 Scotland on two occasions. Mr. Robert Gray writes (B. of W. of Scotl. p. 276) as follows: — 

 " A specimen of the Purple Heron, killed in Caithness, is mentioned by the late Mr. Wilson as 

 being in the collection of Mr. E. S. Sinclair, surgeon, Wick. This occurrence had previously 

 been published by the Rev. Charles Thomson in his statistical account of that parish, dated 

 March 1841. Another example of this rare bird was shot in the parish of Monquhitter, Aber- 

 deenshire, in March 1847, as recorded in Macgillivray's British birds, on the authority of the 

 Eev. James Smith, who furnished Dr. Macgillivray with the full particulars of its capture." It 

 is said to have only once been obtained in Ireland, and is not found in Greenland, Iceland, or 

 the Faeroes, nor has it, so far as I can ascertain, ever been seen or obtained in Norway ; and, 

 according to Nilsson, it has only once occurred in Sweden, in Southern Skane, where one was 

 shot by a peasant lad on the 18th April, 1853, at Ostra Torp. In Finland it does not occur; 

 nor has it been met with by Sabanaeff in Central Russia, or by Meves and other travellers in the 

 northern Governments of that empire. In Northern and Central Germany it appears to be a 

 rare bird, but breeds in some parts of Central Germany. Gloger says that it breeds regularly in 

 Central and Lower Silesia ; and Mr. A. von Homeyer found it nesting on an island in the Rhine 

 to the south-west of Darmstadt. It does not appear to visit Denmark even as a straggler, but is 

 found in Holland, where it is said to breed ; but Mr. Labouchere informs me it is rare, and he 

 only once observed it not far from Amsterdam. 



Baron de Selys Longchamps says it is of rare and accidental occurrence on passage in the 

 centre of Belgium and on the Moselle, but is more abundant in the great marsh near Venlo, 

 towards the Dutch frontier. It is met with throughout France. Messrs. Degland and Gerbe 

 state that it breeds in tolerable abundance in the south of France, and sometimes in Champagne, 

 but is a mere visitor on passage in most of the west and northern provinces. In the autumn of 

 1845 a large number passed by Lille, at which season only immature birds are observed, whilst 

 in spring adults are also obtained. Jaubert and Barthelemy-Lapommeraye doubt if it any longer 

 breeds in the marshes of the Bouches du Rhone, as it formerly did. It is included by Professor 

 Barboza du Bocage in his list of the birds of Portugal as being common at Alemtejo, and is also 

 a common bird in Spain during the nesting-season, but does not winter there. Mr. Howard 

 Saunders found it breeding near Seville and at the Albufera of Valencia; and Colonel Irby 

 writes (Orn. Str. Gibr. p. 182) as follows: — "The Purple Heron in Andalucia only remains for 



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