the purple heron. 
67 
lotiffer drooping plumes, which are slaty-grey, the 
patch "^l^'te at their ends ; on each side of the chest a 
black • •?^''‘^°^'‘^bestnut plumes ; breast and abdomen slaty- 
'''ina-cn*'^^^ body slaty-grey ; thighs pale cinnamon ; under 
with a chestnut ; axillaries and quill-lining slaty-grey, 
lower in mfous on the former ; bill brownish-black, the 
yellow • ® brownish-yellow, the tip yellow ; cere greenish- 
yellow ^h black on their exterior face, brownish- 
Total le^ thigh yellow; iris pale yellow, 
tarsus, '‘^'^bes ; eulmen, 4-8 ; wing, 14-3 ; tail, 5-0 ; 
coloured^''^^k~~^“^^*'^'’ brightly 
shorter ’ t black ornamental plumes on the nape 
otal length, 30 inches; wing, i3'2. 
ornamemal'^*^*^*’ — black nape-plumes are absent, and the 
fore-npoU plumes of the back and scapulars and on the 
are much less developed. 
of browner than the adults, all the feathers 
scapular surface being edged with sandy-buff ; the reddish 
secondar' feebly developed; the inner 
gins • np U* ®^^uugly glossed with oily-green, with sandy-buff mar- 
throat ®^^®'''^i®b-bufr, with a slight tinge of chestnut ; lower 
more V f”^/°'^u-neck streaked with dusky-brown, the latter 
nut • f ’ forehead blackish, the hinder crown dull chest- 
throat face uniform yellowish-buff; cheeks and upper 
bases tn fk breast reddish-buff, mottled with grey 
wliitp '1 j fbers ; centre of breast and abdomen buffy- 
^uite, streaked with dusky. 
neariv^Vft Britain. — Mr. Howard Saunders estimates that 
sneciL k ^ examples, mostly young birds, of the present 
have bee been obtained in the British Islands. As might 
on oiir po these occurrences have mostly taken place 
one exTPim^'^k aneWfess frequently in the south. Only 
killed obtained in Ireland, a bird having been 
are known in 1834, and but three Scottish records 
than forty Caithness and Aberdeenshire more 
Prestonnans Tn n°i ^ female specimen, shot near 
P October, 1872, is in the collection of Mr. 
