THE EGRET IN BRITAIN. 381 



net ; but the Act did not allow the killing of Kite or Eaven in 

 or within two miles of any city or town corporate, and care is 

 taken to point out " that this Acte . . . shall not give liberty to 

 any person ... to use any meane or engyn for the destruction 

 of any Crowes Eookes Chawghes or other vermin to the Dis- 

 turbance Lett or Destruccyon of the building or breeding of 

 any kinde of Hawkes, Herons, Egrytes, Paupers, Swannes, or 

 Shovelers, or to the hurte or destruction of any Doves or 

 Dove-houses, Deere, or Warren of Conyes." Stares were not 

 allowed to be taken from Dove-houses, but could be caught 

 elsewhere. 



Here we get definite proof that in 1564 there was an 

 "Egryte" worthy of special protection as a game bird in this 

 country, at a time when it was under repeated notice in con- 

 temporary literature as a bird of the Heron kind. It is hardly 

 likely that either the bird or the Act escaped the notice of 

 Francis Willughby ; but it must not be forgotten that his work 

 was finished and published by another hand in 1576, four years 

 after his death ; and this may be some explanation of the lack 

 of any more definite mention of the Egret in his ' Ornithology,' 

 although it hardly explains the silence of other writers. 



To my mind a passage in Sir John Hawkin's account of 

 Florida ("Hakluyt Soc." 1878, p. 62) is very important. He 

 describes an " Egript " (the same spelling as that used in Allde's 

 1590 edition of the 'Boke of Kervynge'), " which is all white 

 as the swanne, with legs like to an hearnshaw, and of bigness 

 accordingly, but it hath in her taile feathers of so fine a plume, 

 that it passeth the estridge his feather." Surely this can only 

 imply that the Egret with which he and his readers were 

 best acquainted was not white, nor the size of a Heron, nor 

 adorned with plumes. Yet, according to some contemporary 

 writers, as I indicated in my first paper, this British Egret was 

 white, while Turner stated definitely that the white nested with 

 the blue and produced offspring ; and, also, he detected slight 

 but distinct points of difference between the British bird and the 

 Italian Albardeola. 



Have we here a hint of the phenomenon of dichromatism in 

 this extinct bird? All modern students of ornithology will be 

 familiar with the extraordinary variations found in certain 



