. The sportsman's British bird book . sh, but on other occasionsfar out in the water. Whenflushed, purple herons rise witha loud harsh cry. In this place may be brieflymentioned three beautiful repre-sentatives of the heron tribe sorarely met with in this countrythat neither of them deserves tobe included in the list of trulyBritish birds. The first and largest of them is the great white heron, Herodias alba, representinga genus distinguished from Ardca by the wholly white plumageand the relatively short beak, which is considerably inferior in lengthto the shank of the leg. In size the white h
. The sportsman's British bird book . sh, but on other occasionsfar out in the water. Whenflushed, purple herons rise witha loud harsh cry. In this place may be brieflymentioned three beautiful repre-sentatives of the heron tribe sorarely met with in this countrythat neither of them deserves tobe included in the list of trulyBritish birds. The first and largest of them is the great white heron, Herodias alba, representinga genus distinguished from Ardca by the wholly white plumageand the relatively short beak, which is considerably inferior in lengthto the shank of the leg. In size the white heron is approximately thesame as the grey heron. The proper home of the species during thebreeding-season is the south of Europe and Central Asia. A consider-able number of reputed occurrences of this heron in the British Islandsduring the nineteenth century have been reported ; but, according toan ornithologist who made a special investigation of the subject, onlyfive of these can be considered thoroughly authenticated. The first of. 0 STUDIOS GREAT WHITE HERON. 248 HERON TRIBE these was at Hornsea, Yorkshire, in 1826, the second at Beverley, inthe same county, nine years later, the third on the Firth of Forth in1840, the fourth in Cambridgeshire in 1849, ^^ ^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ LochKatrine in 1881. To these may perhaps be added a specimen shot atOsberton, Nottingham, many years ago, and another seen in Yorkshirein I 868. Of the little egret {Herodias garzetta) sixteen individuals appearto have been recorded from the British Islands during the lastcentury, including a specimen in the Chester Museum, killed in 1826 ;one of these being from Scotland, and two from Ireland. Another example was recorded from Yorkshire inI 901. This bird is much smaller thanthe great white heron, or larger egret,measuring only about 20 inches inlength, and is further distinguished bypossessing a head-crest and elongatedbreast - plumes during the breeding-season ; these plumes forming the well-known ospreys
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