BRITISH BIRDS. 
THE SQUACCO HERON. 
(Ardea comata, Pallas’s Travels.—Ae Guacco, Buff.) 
Latham describes this bird as being rather less than 
a Crow. He says the bill is livid red, with a brown 
tip; lore greenish; irides yellow; crown of the head 
much crested, six of the feathers hanging quite down 
to the back ; these are narrow, white, margined with 
black ; the neck and breast pale ferruginous ; the fea- 
thers on the first very long and loose ; back ferrugi- 
nous, inclining to violet, and furnished with long nar- 
row feathers, which reach beyond the wings when 
closed, and fall over them; wings, rump, tail, belly 
and vent, white; the tail pretty long; legs stout, of a 
greenish yellow ; claw of the middle toe serrated with- 
in.” “ This is an elegant species, and inhabits the 
bays of the Caspian Sea, and the slow streams of the 
southern desert. It is also met with in Italy, about 
Bologna, where it is called Squacco, and is said to be 
a bold and courageous bird.” In the Globe London 
newspaper, of the 4th December, 1820, it is stated 
that, there has been taken within a few miles of Yar- 
mouth, a male bird, of that very rare species, Ardea 
comata, of Pallas, or the Squacco Heron, of Latham.” 
From this authority we venture to give it a place 
among British Birds. 
