A LOST BRITISH BIRD. 151 



the common Heronshaw but only in colour. For Mr. Johnson,* 

 who hath seen the bird in England, puts it down for a distinct 

 kind in his Method of Birds communicated to us." This corre- 

 spondent of Aldrovand was, as we now know, William Turner. 

 I desire to lay stress on the point that there was some doubt 

 whether or not this White Heron had a crest, but more will be 

 said later on this. That Willughby himself had no knowledge 

 of the bird is a matter of little importance, for he can only 

 speak of the Crane from hearsay ; yet the abundance of this 

 species in England in former times is beyond question. And 

 Tunstall classed together in an appendix of ' Aves raro in Brit- 

 taniam adventientes ' Crane, Egrette, Great White Heron, Spoon- 

 bill, Crossbill, and even Brambling. It is also necessary to 

 quote the remarks of Pennant ('British Zoology,' 2nd ed. vol. ii.). 

 Under the heading of Great White Heron (p. 345), after refer- 

 ring to Willughby and Turner, he speaks of the " Egrittes " of 

 Leland as a smaller but crested bird ; and at p. 495 he prints the 

 bill of fare for the great feast at Cawood, in Yorkshire, on the 

 enthronization of Archbishop Neville in 1374 (cf. John Leland's 

 ' Britt. Collecteanea,' vol. vi. pp. 2 et seq.). At this feast vast 

 quantities of game and other animals and birds were consumed. 

 There is no need to go into all the details of the hundreds of 

 Cranes, Bitterns, Herons, &c, that appeared at this orgy, and only 

 one item may be mentioned. It is " Egrittes, 1000." Leland's 

 figures, large as they are, were accepted by Pennant, who was 

 certainly not ignorant of the minor details of English history. 



We now come to the time of Fleming's unlucky comment. 

 In 1828, in a ' History of British Animals,' he has the following 

 passage (p. 96) : — " Ardea garzetta, Temm. This is supposed to 

 be the species, a thousand individuals of which were served up 

 under the name Egrittes at the feast of Neville in the reign of 

 Edward IV. It is possible, however, that the Lapwing may have 

 been referred to, as the commonest bird with a crest. On the 

 supposition that this Heron was the bird alluded to, it will be 

 difficult to account for the silence of Willughby and Ptay in 

 regard to this species being a native of Britain." As we have 

 seen, Willughby believed in a British species of White Heron, 

 but was not able to prove that it had, or had not, a crest — that it 



* Johnson was a Yorkshireinan, rather an interesting fact iu connection 

 with Leland's account of the Cawood Feast. 



