150 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



A LOST BRITISH BIRD. 

 By Frederick J. Stubbs. 



During the Middle Ages England was the home of a White 

 Heron or Egret, of which no useful description appears to have 

 been handed down. Several of the earlier ornithologists referred 

 vaguely to it, but an unfortunate note by Dr. Fleming in 1828 

 seems to have driven the bird out of the thoughts of modern 

 students of the British avifauna. The following notes (which 

 in no way exhaust the subject), if not sufficient to reinstate the 

 species in natural history, may perhaps stimulate some other 

 student to turn his labours to the same end. 



The tiresome, but in this case necessary, task of reviewing 

 the works of certain old ornithologists must be attended to first. 

 William Turner (1500-1568), in his 'Avium Prsecipuarum,' &c. 

 (A. H. Evan's edition), after noticing the Common Heron, goes 

 on to say that there was another, the " Alba, which was fair in 

 colour, . . . and brings forth young well." On the same bird 

 he remarks: ''Of this [the Common Heron] I have seen some 

 white, though they are rare, which differed from the aforesaid 

 in colour only. Furthermore, the white has been observed in 

 England to nest with the blue, and to bear offspring. Where- 

 fore it is clear that they are of the same species." Subsequent 

 writers (Merrett, Muffett,* and Tunstall) mention a White Heron, 

 but the remarks of Francis Willughby are important, and need 

 to be given in full. I quote from Ray's edition of the " Ornitho- 

 logy " (1678, p. 279):— 



" The Great White Heron, Ardea alba major. This differs 

 from the Common Heron, 1 in magnitude, as being lesser than 

 that. 2 in the length of the tail. 3 in that it wants a crest. A 

 certain Englishman (saith Aldrovand) affirmed that he had seen 

 white Herons, though rarely, which neither in bigness of body 

 nor shape differed from the common Heron, but only in colour. 

 I suspect this Relator, whoever he was 3 , was mistaken, account- 

 ing the bird in this article described by us as not to differ from 



* ' Health's Improvement ' (1655). The following passage (p. 93) cannot 

 be known to a critic of Merrett's ('British Birds,' ii. p. 161): — "All the 

 Heronshaws (namely, the Black, Avhite, criel-heronshaw, and the mire 

 dromhle) though feeding somewhat better than the Byttor or Stork," &c. ; 

 and Muffett mentions the Spoonbill as " Shovelard." 



