492 



SQUACCO HERON. 



over them ; wing's, rump, tail, belly, and vent, white ; the tail pretty 

 long ; legs stout, of a greenish yellow ; the claw of the middle toe 

 serrated within. The above description is from Latham, who says 

 it was shot at Boyton, in Wiltshire, by Mr. Lambert, in 1795, who 

 presented a drawing- of it to the Linnsean Society, in 1797. 



Another Heron, supposed by Fleming- to be a variety of sex or age, 

 was shot by Mr. Cunningham, at Riddleton, in Dorsetshire, and is de- 

 scribed by Montagu, in the Supplement to his Dictionary, as the freckled 

 heron (Ardea lentiginosa.) This species did not in the least accord 

 with the descriptions of any before mentioned, nor indeed sufficiently 

 with any he could find described, although he thought it probable it 

 would prove a sexual distinction only of some species obscurely known, 

 an uncertainty which still exists respecting it. 



The length was about twenty-three inches. Bill two inches and 

 three-quarters long to the feathers on the forehead, rather slender, and 

 both mandibles equally turned to form the point ; the upper part of the 

 superior mandible dusky ; sides and lower mandible greenish yellow ; 

 the head is very small ; the crown is chocolate-brown, shaded to a dull 

 yellow at the nape, where the feathers are much elongated ; the chin 

 and throat white, with a row of brown feathers down the middle ; at 

 the base of the lower mandible commences a black mark that increases 

 on the upper part of the neck on each side, and is two inches or more 

 in length ; the cheeks are yellowish, with an obscure dusky line at the 

 corner of the eye ; the feathers on the neck are long and broad, with 

 their webs partly unconnected ; those in front are pale dull yellow, with 

 broad chestnut streaks formed by each feather having one web of each 

 colour, margined, however, with dull yellow on the chestnut side ; some 

 feathers have the dark mark in the middle, especially the lower ones ; 

 these are all loose as in the common bittern ; those at the bottom of 

 the neck four inches long, and hanging pendant below the breast ; the 

 hind neck is bare, and the feathers that fall over that part are pale 

 yellow-brown ; the feathers on the breast are also long, and of a fine 

 chocolate-brown, glossed with purple, and margined with dull yellow ; 

 belly and sides the same, but not quite so bright, the brown marks be- 

 coming speckled ; the vent and under tail coverts yellowish-white ; the 

 back and scapulars are chocolate-brown, with paler margins, minutely 

 speckled and glossed witl a tinge of purple in some particular lights ; 

 the coverts of the wings dull yellow, darkest in the middle of each 

 feather, the margins prettily speckled ; the first and second order of 

 quills, their greater coverts, and the allula spurice dusky lead-colour, 

 with a cinereous dash ; the primaries very slightly tipped with brown ; 

 the secondaries and the greater coverts tipped more deeply with the 



