BIRDS 225 



PURPLE HERON. 



Ardea purpurea, L. 



Our knowledge that this Heron has once occurred in Lakeland 

 rests upon the authority of the late John Gould. The informa- 

 tion given by that eminent naturalist is the following : ' Mr. R. 

 C. Musgrave, in a note, dated Eden Hall, Penrith, November 

 21, 1870, says, " the Purple Heron in my father's collection was 

 shot near Alston in Cumberland about twenty years ago." n A 

 full-dressed bird of the species still exists at Edenhall, and I 

 believe this to be the identical bird to which Gould made 

 reference. 



SQUACCO HERON. 



Ardea ralloides, Scop. 



Writing to T. C. Heysham, on September 7, 1845, Yarrell 

 states : ' I heard also in July, by a communication from Sir 

 George Musgrave to Mr. Jesse, that a specimen of the Squacco 

 Heron was shot during the second week near Kirkoswald, a 

 village on Eden. The bird was observed in a meadow close to 

 the river.' Heysham replied, on September 9 : ' I owe you 

 many thanks for your kind communication relative to the capture 

 of a specimen of the Squacco Heron near the village of Kirk- 

 oswald in July last. ... Sir George Musgrave . . . has, I 

 understand, a small collection of Cumberland birds, chiefly 

 mounted by Philip Turner, a bird-stuffer residing at Penrith.' 



Sir George Musgrave wrote to Heysham on the 26th of 

 November that year : ' I amuse myself in making a little 

 collection of British Birds which have been taken in the neigh- 

 bourhood ; but I have no particularly rare birds, except a 

 Squacco Heron, which a farmer at Lazonby shot for me in the 

 summer.' Mr. Gould furnishes a note regarding the same bird : 

 * Mr. R. C. Musgrave informs me that a specimen in his father's, 

 Sir George Musgrave's, possession, was shot by one of his game- 

 keepers in June 1845, while perching on a tree at Lazonby in 

 Cumberland.' 2 



1 Birds of Great Britain, vol. iv., not paged. 



2 Ibid. vol. iv. , not paged. 



P 



