1G6 
A GROUP OF EGRETS. 
single specimen of this bird has been obtained in Britain, 
and there appears some doubt as to whether that might not 
have been identical with the second-named species, although 
Macgillivray thinks not. 
The White Heron, as this latter bird is often called, 
appears to be white with black feet, and a yellow bill; 
length about forty inches. Five or six is, we believe, the 
total number of specimens of this species of Heron taken in 
Britain. 
The Little White Egret is one of the most charming 
members of its family, of which, also, it is one of the 
smallest, being about twenty-four inches in length ; it, too, 
has white plumage with a black bill. ^ That this bird was 
formerly common here, appears by some of the old bills of 
fare ; in the famous feast by Archbishop Neville we find no 
less than a thousand Asteiides, Eginttes or Egrets, as it is 
variously spelled. Probably the esteem in which they 
were held as table delicacies caused their extirpation. 
Abroad they are still common, especially in the southern 
parts of Europe, where they appear in flocks.' Thus says 
Pennant as quoted by Yarrell, who mentions eight or nine 
specimens taken here since 1792. 
The last of the four above-named is about twenty inches 
long ; and its delicately white plumage is tinged at the fore 
part of the breast and back with cream colour, the bill is 
pale yellow, the feet dusky yellow. The claim of this bird 
to admission to the British fauna rests on a single speci- 
men: it was shot in Devonshire in October, 1805. 
