284 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 
LITTLE EGRET. 
This is the most beautiful bird I ever saw in a state of 
nature, and I should say the handsomest on the British list. 
Books would have us believe that it has been killed twenty 
times in this country, but this is not true. There are only 
five of them, which, like Czsar’s wife, are above suspicion. 
I would not give much for the specimen in the Wisbeach 
Museum, though the inscription on it says that it was killed 
at Sleaford, Anwick, (South Lincolnshire) in December, 
1851. Its history, as far as Mr. Cordeaux and I can learn, 
is that it was given as askin by the Rev. F. Latham* of 
Helpringham. I think that the explanation may be that in 
a general cleaning it has changed tickets with some other 
bird, but there it stands. It is in winter plumage, and is 
marked a male. 
GREAT-CRESTED GREBE. 
It appears that this ornament of the waters is apt to be 
aggressive at times. A friend was one day in his punt 
among the mudflats and shoals of the Wash, and he chanced 
to wound a Grebe. Without more ado the bird came right 
at him, and would have attacked him he thinks if he had 
not instantly struck it down with his paddle. 
T once read a parallel case in “Land and Water.” I have 
found up the paragraph, which is as follows :— 
“On February 18th, 1870, just at daybreak, a bird attacked a 
man who was walking along a wood ; it gave several harsh screams — 
and rushed at his waistcoat. With difficulty he managed by kick- 
ing it to kill it. He said he was very much frightened. He 
* Who informs Mr. C., z#, /#t., that he thinks he got it in Hamp- 
shire. 
