PURPLE HERON. 145 



GRALLATORES. ARDEIDM. 



PLATE CLXV. 



PURPLE HERON. 



ARDEA PURPUREA. 



The Purple Heron is an occasional visitant in Great 

 Britain, and has been captured more frequently of late years, 

 since the taste of the public has led to making collections of 

 stuffed specimens of British Birds. The proper residence of 

 the Purple Heron in Europe is the south and south-east, 

 from the Black Sea throughout Turkey, Greece, Italy, 

 Hungary, Germany, France, Switzerland, and Holland, from 

 ■whence it naturally comes over to us. In Asia it is more 

 frequent still, even as far north as the southern parts of 

 Siberia, but increasing in number as the countries approach 

 the south. It is also met with at the Cape of Good Hope 

 and in India. 



The habits of the Purple Heron differ from those of the 

 common Heron, inasmuch as it is never seen along the banks of 

 rivers where the water is open and runs freely along, but among 

 high flags and rushes, by sluggish, muddy streams, and the 

 shallow, swampy banks covered by aquatic vegetation, that 

 encircle lakes and ponds ; hence it is that the borders of the 

 Black and Caspian Seas harbour it plentifully. 



The Purple Heron is rarely seen at any distance, owing 

 to its habit of hiding continually among the long herbage and 

 stumps of trees ; and in such places it must be looked for by the 



