158 
ARDEID^. 
THE SQUACCO HEEON, 
Ardea comata, Pallas. 
ralloides, Scopoli. 
Has been once obtained ; 
A SPECIMEN having been shot in KiUeagh Bog^ a few miles from 
Yoiighab on the 26th of May, 1849. To Dr. J. B. Harvey of 
Cork I am indebted for all the information which I possess re- 
specting it. The occurrence of a rare bird of this family being 
communicated to that gentleman by Mr. Samuel Moss of Yonghal, 
who preserved the specimen, a description of it was requested, 
the perusal of wEich led to the belief that it must be the squacco 
heron. The bird was kindly sent to Cork for Dr. Harvey^s exami- 
nation, and the following result communicated to me: — It is un- 
doubtedly the Ardea ralloides ; the descriptions and measurements 
(as closely as I can test them by comparison with a mounted bird 
fixed in a case) are so near as to leave no hesitation in the matter. 
The oidy difference between the specimen and the descriptions in 
Temminck, YarreU, and Jenyns, worth noticing, is, that the beUy 
is not pure white ; — it has a good deal of the buff tinge anteriorly 
and along the sides. The plume of feathers, which have the 
little terminal bordering beautifully marked, are from three to four 
inches long : perhaps they are not fuUy grown. I should suppose 
the bird to have been adult ; its length was eighteen inches. The 
sex was un-noted by the preserver."’^ This bird was probably one 
of the same flight, or influenced to migrate farther westward than 
usual by the same causes which induced the species to visit 
the extreme portion of England, in that direction, in May last. 
Mr. E. H. Eodd, of Penzance, records his having seen three of 
these birds in the course of being preserved, on the 15th of May, 
1849 ; two of which were shot near the Land's End, and the 
other — while perched on a tree — in the parish of St. Hilary, 
Cornwall.* 
Zoologist, July 1849, p. 2498, 
