158 
GP.EY AND PURPLE HERONS. 
-more robust sjjecies of tlie family to which they give name. 
The last named is a very rare species in this comitry, and 
a most beautiful bird, having a plumage of bluish black, or 
purple ; buff of various shades, chestnut, grey, maroon colour, 
nicely shaded and intermixed so as to produce an effect at 
once rich and chaste. The length from the back to the 
tail is about twenty-nine inches ; the form is slender and 
graceful. Altogether, about a dozen specimens of this bird 
have been taken in Britain. It is a native of the temperate 
and warmer parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa ; feeding, 
like its congener, on small animals, reptiles, iishes, and 
aquatic insects ; and haunting morasses and marshy swamps, 
where it makes its nest on the ground, laying three eggs of 
a pale green colour, about two inches and a quarter long. 
The Common Heron is an awkv/ard-looking bird as to 
shape, with a large head and bill, set upon a snaky neck, 
that usually with the high-humped back forms a curve like 
the letter S ; the long legs are set far back in the body, 
the feet and claws are large, and the tail very short. The 
prevailing col(?ur of the plumage is grey, at parts deepening 
into dark slate colour, and bluish black, or fading olF into 
vfhitQj which is, howeverj nowhere v/ithout an admixture 
coMT.rox iiEr.ox. 
