290 



base; bare space round tbe eye greenish yellow; iris reddish yellow; legs greyish green. Total length 

 about 27 inches, culmen 3-22, gape 3-95, wing 1T5, tail 4-5, tarsus 3'85. 



Adult Female. Differs from the male only in being rather smaller in size, and a little duller in the markings 

 of the plumage. 



It is somewhat remarkable that this bird, an inhabitant of North America, should have been met 

 with so often in Great Britain ; for it is by no means a bird that one would expect to cross the 

 Atlantic. Still there can be no doubt that it has been obtained here on several occasions ; and it 

 is curious that it was first described by Montagu from a specimen shot in England, at Piddletown, 

 in Dorsetshire, in 1804. Since then the following occurrences have been recorded, viz.: — One 

 at Mothecombe, near Plymouth, 22nd December 1829 (Moore, Mag. Nat. Hist. x. p. 320); one 

 said in a letter from Mr. J. R. Wallace, of Douglas, Isle of Man, to Yarrell (Brit. B. 3rd ed. ii. 

 p. 578), to have been killed there "very recently;" one shot in Dumfriesshire, near Sir William 

 Jardine's residence, late in October 1844, and preserved in his collection. Yarrell (op. cit. p. 578) 

 states that one was killed at Fleetwood, in Lancashire ; and he also refers to one recorded as 

 having been killed near Yarmouth; but Mr. Stevenson (B. of Norf. ii. p. 174) points out that 

 this occurrence cannot be depended on. Thompson states (B. of Irel. ii. p. 168) that one, now 

 in the Belfast Museum, was obtained near Armagh on the 12th November 1845. Mr. Gurney 

 (Zool. 1866, p. 145) says that he examined one in the flesh procured in Anglesea in December 

 1851 ; and he also identifies one killed at Canterbury. According to Mr. Robert Gray (B. of 

 W. of Scotl. p. 280), one was shot by Colonel William Fraser in November 1854, near the Bridge 

 of Don, on the estate of Balgownie, in Aberdeenshire ; one at Latherow-Wheel, Caithness, in the 

 autumn of 1862 ; and one (recorded in the Field of 4th March 1871) was shot near the Compen- 

 sation Pond, in the Pentland Hills, Mid Lothian, by John Kinkell, gamekeeper to Charles 

 Cowan, Esq., of Logan House, about ten years previously. Mr. Dutton (Zool. 1868, p. 1098) 

 records one, in the collection of Sir John Crewe, as having been killed in the Pevensey Marshes, 

 Sussex, on the 26th November 1867; Lord Clermont (Zool. 1869, p. 1517) cites the occurrence 

 of one near Dundalk, co. Louth, on the 18th November 1868 ; one, in the collection of Mr. Cecil 

 Smith, was obtained in Guernsey on the 27th October 1870; and, according to Mr. Blake-Knox 

 (Zool. 1870, p. 2408), one was procured at Cahir, co. Galway, on the 31st October 1870. So far 

 as I can ascertain, it does not appear to have been met with on the continent of Europe ; for, 

 though it is said to have been obtained near Leipzig, I do not find any evidence confirmatory of 

 this statement. 



In America the present species is very generally distributed from about 58° N. lat. down to 

 Guatemala. Dr. Coues states : — " It is migratory, and its movements are regular. Excepting 

 the Great Blue Heron, no bird of its tribe in this country is so extensively dispersed. It reaches 

 the Northern States in March or early in April, and may pass still further north. I ascertained 

 its occurrence at Rigolet, in Labrador ; and it is stated to reach 58° or 60° in the interior. It 

 reaches across our continent. To the south its movements extend to Guatemala, although it 

 winters in the Southern States as well, and also, I am inclined to think, even in the Middle 

 States, as I have procured it in January at Washington. It visits some of the West-Indian 

 Islands. In September I found it migratory through Dakota in comparative plenty. It may 



