and summer. It lias been taken twice in Hampshire, and
once in the Isle of Wight (May); three times in Dorset
(May and July); once near Bridgewater, in Somersetshire ;
and twice in Devon: in July 1840, and in June 1878. In
Cornwall, according to Rodd, about a dozen instances are
known—all in spring—and most of the examples were in
immature plumage. In Breconshire, one (May); in Cumberland,
one (July) ; Shropshire claims one ; Nottinghamshire,
one (August) ; and Yorkshire, one. On the east coast, four
examples have been obtained in Norfolk (May to July), and
at least two in Suffolk; and one near Gainsborough, in
Lincolnshire (June).
In Scotland, an example was shot on the Glasgow Canal
on the 9th October, 1852 (‘Naturalist,’ 1853, p. 61); and
Mr. R. Gray exhibited a specimen in the collection of the
Duke of Buccleuch, shot at Dalmahoy, in the parish of
Ratlio (Pr. Phys. Soc. Edinb. iv. p. 216). Six instances are
on record of its visits to Ireland :—three in the counties of
Cork and Waterford, and one each in Kerry and King’s
County; all between May and July; one, Londonderry,
according to Mr. R. Lloyd Patterson, on the 23rd November,
1881 : an unusually late date.
On the Continent the Squacco Heron is a spring and
summer visitor which has only occurred as a rare straggler
in Northern Germany, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, and
the north of France, but it becomes tolerably common in
the valley of the Loire, where there can be little doubt that
it breeds. South of that line it is generally distributed in
suitable localities throughout Central and Southern Europe
from spring to autumn. In Spain it arrives in April, but
in the valley of the Danube it is the beginning of May
before it makes its appearance. It is known throughout the
Mediterranean ; and eastward its range extends to Palestine,
Asia Minor, and the marshes of the Caspian ; but it has not
yet been traced beyond Persia. In the west it has occurred
in the Canaries; and it breeds in considerable numbers in
the marshes of Morocco, Algeria, and the rest of northern
Africa, including Egypt; being to a great extent resident
both there and in other parts of that vast Continent, as far
south as Namaqua Land on the west and the Transvaal and
Natal on the east. In Madagascar it was obtained by Mr.
E. Newton.
The Squacco Heron breeds, as already stated, in colonies;
its slight nest being built, according to Mr. Seebohm, on
the same model as those of the Little Egret and Night-
Heron, the twigs radiating from the centre. On the Danube
the nests were in pollard willows ; but on Lake Halloula, in
Algeria, Canon Tristram found them on tufts of reeds, and
composed of great heaps of water-weed and rushes. The
Squacco is a very late breeder, and its eggs are seldom laid
before the 10th of Ju n e ; they are from four to six in
number, of a greenish-blue colour, and average in measurements
P5 by l ’l in. In its breeding-haunts it is described
as being very pugnacious towards other species.
The food of the Squacco Heron consists largely of water-
beetles and various kinds of insects, small crabs, mollusks,
frogs, minute fish, and occasionally small mammals, an
entire shrew having been found in the crop of one examined
by Mr. Rodd. Naumann says that this species affects
the company of swine ; but Colonel Irby remarked that in
Spain it did not frequent the grazing-grounds of cattle after
the manner of the Buff-backed Heron. It is a very silent
bird, but occasionally utters a harsh karr. In its habits it
is somewhat inactive, passing the greater portion of the
day in one position, the head being drawn in between the
shoulders like a Bittern.
The adult bird has the beak cobalt-blue at the base, black
towards the point; the lore naked and green ; the irides
yellow ; the feathers on the top of the head pale yellow-
brown, streaked longitudinally with dark lines, the feathers
becoming elongated towards the occiput, with a dark line
along each outer edge; the feathers forming the occipital
plume are eight or nine in number, and from four to six
inches in length, lanceolate, pointed, pure white along the
centre, bounded on each side with a black line, with a very
narrow terminal margin of white ; the sides, front of the
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