prior to 1841; and Macgillivray has cited another obtained
in March 1847, in Aberdeenshire. A few more examples
have, doubtless, occurred in the British Islands, but enough
have been mentioned to indicate that this species is an irregular
visitant to our eastern and southern shores, becoming
extremely rare in the western districts. Considering its comparative
abundance on the neighbouring shores of Europe,
it is perhaps somewhat remarkable that its visits should be
so few and far between.
The Purple Heron is a mere straggler to the south of
Sweden, and it is of rare or very local occurrence in Northern
Germany. Its nearest breeding-places are in Holland, where
it is still by no means uncommon, although some of its haunts
have been interfered with by drainage. To Belgium, and to
the northern districts of France, it is principally a visitor on
passage, but it breeds in considerable numbers in the marshes
of the Loire, and in some parts of the south and east. In
the Spanish Peninsula it nests in suitable localities, as it
does over the rest of Europe, from Central Germany southwards;
but it appears that the majority migrate from the
countries on the northern side of the Mediterranean in
winter. In Poland, according to Dr. Taczanowski, it is on
the whole rare; nor is it common in Austria or Hungary,
although it becomes abundant in the valley of the Lower
Danube and in the marshy districts of Southern Russia.
In Asia it is generally distributed in well-watered localities,
from the Mediterranean and the Caspian to the Philippines
and the Indian Archipelago, and it is resident in the warmer
portions; but it is rare in North China, and its recorded
occurrence in Japan is open to doubt. Even from the greater
part of Northern Africa—with the exception of Egypt, where it
is resident—it appears to be partially migratory in winter, at
which season this species is exceedingly abundant throughout
the rest of the continent; and, in addition to these migrants,
large numbers permanently inhabit the marshy districts down
to Cape Colony. It has even been found up to an elevation
of 9,000 feet in Abyssinia; and it has been met with in
Madagascar.
The Purple Heron is partial to still waters and reedy
marshes, and in Europe its breeding-places are, as a rule,
exceedingly difficult of access, being generally situated in
the midst of dense masses of reeds, where wading is almost
impossible. Mr. Alfred Crowley, who visited the Naarden
Meer, near Amsterdam, on the 27th of May, 1884, describes
the nests as placed about three feet above the water, and
made by bending down twelve or fifteen reeds to form a
platform, on which some smaller pieces were arranged crosswise,
and this agrees with the Editor’s experiences in Spain.
In Ceylon, however, Colonel Legge and Mr. Nevill found
this species breeding on trees, and forming flat but rather
bulky nests. The eggs are usually three in number, and are
of a bluish-green colour, somewhat paler and smaller than
those of the Common Heron : average measurements 2‘2 by
P5 in.
In its habits the Purple Heron is more like the Bittern
than the Heron last described, and it is shy and, to a considerable
extent, crepuscular, and even nocturnal, in its time
of feeding. From the thinness of the long snake-like neck,
the birds, even when numerous, are with difficulty distinguished
when they are standing in a reed-margined lake,
nearly up to the belly in water, their bodies, in the shimmering
sun-liglit, exactly resembling tussocks of reed. The
flight is similar to that of the Common Heron, but the note
is more guttural. The food of this species consists of small
mammalia, reptiles, fishes, and aquatic insects. Mr. Stevenson
found that two birds which he dissected were extremely
fat; the stomach of one contained two good-sized roach—
one quite five inches long in the other was merely a dry
pellet of mouse-hair.
The adult bird has the beak yellow, darkest in colour at
the base; the lore greenish-yellow ; irides bright lemon ; the
top of the head, the occiput, and the long occipital plumes,
glossy black, tinged with purple ; cheeks and sides of the
neck fawn-colour, with descending streaks of bluish-black;
back and wing-coverts dark slate-grey; the elongated filamentous
dorsal feathers, chestnut; tail-feathers bluish-grey,