LITTLE EGRET. 481 



ARDEA GARZETTA. 

 LITTLE EGRET. 



(Plate 38.) 



Ardea egretta, Briss. Om. v. p. 431 (1760). 



Ardea garzetta, lAnn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 237 (1766) ; et auctonun plurimorum — 



Latham, Temminck, Naumann, Schlegel, Dresser, &c. 

 Ardea niuea, Omel. Meise Bussl. i. p. 164 (1770). 

 Ardea santodactylos, Omel. Reise Eussl. iii. p. 253 (1774). 

 Ardea nivea, Gmel. Byst. Nat. i. p. 640 (1788). 

 Ardea sequinoctialis, Linn, apud Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. 8fc. Brit. Mus. p. 83 



(1816). 

 Herodias garzetta (Linn.), Boie, Isis, 1822, p. 659. 

 Ardea melanopus, Wagler, Isis, 1829, p. 660. 

 Herodias jubata, Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 686 (1831). 

 Ardea nigrirostris, . ^^^ ^. ^^^^ ^^ 



Ardea onentaus, I rr > \ j 



Egretta nigrirostris (Gray), j 



Egretta orientalis (Gray), I Bonap. Comp. List B. Eur. (f- N. Amer. p. 47 (1838). 

 Egretta garzetta •(Xmw.), ) 



, Ardea nigripes, Temm. Man. d'Orn. iv. p. 377 (1840). 

 Erodius garzetta {Linn.), MacgiU. Man. Brit. B. ii. p. 135 (1842). 

 Herodias immaculata, Gould, B. ofAustr. vi. pi. 69 (1848). 

 Garzetta immaculata [Gould), Bonap. Compt. Bend. xl. p. 722 (1855). 

 Garzetta egretta (Briss.), i 



Garzetta orientalis ( Gray), > Bonap. Consp. ii. pp. 118, 119 (1857). 

 Garzetta nigripes (Temm.), I 



Herodias melanopus ( Wagl.), Gould, Handh. B. Austr. ii. p. 304 (1865). 

 Garzetta nivea (Gmel.), Tacz. Bull. Soe. Zool. France, 1877, p. 159. 



The Little Egret is a very rare accidental visitor to the British Islands. 

 The last known occurrence of this bird is that of an example which was 

 shot on the 4th of January, 1881, a few miles north of Scarborough 

 (Harper, ''Zoologist,^ 1881, p. 213). Ten years previously an example was 

 killed on the 3rd of June, 1870, near Exeter (Gatcombe, ' Zoologist,^ 1870, 

 p. 2308). During the previous thirty-five years no reliable instance of the 

 appearance of this bird in our islands is recorded, the alleged occurrences 

 in Morayshire (Gordon, ' Zoologist,^ 1844, p. 513) and in Warwickshire 

 (Christie, ' Mag. Nat. Hist.-" 1836, p. 647) being very doubtful. About 

 1834 an example was obtained near Norwich, and another near Yarmouth 

 about the same date. Two examples are said to have been obtained in 

 Cornwall about 1835, one in Hampshire in July 1822, and one in Devon- 

 shire in 1816. The alleged occurrences of this bird in Ireland and in 

 Wales at the close of the- last century cannot be relied on. 



The range of the Little Egret is not such a northern one as that of the 

 VOL. II, '/ 2 1 



