G R E A T W H IT E H E R O N .
Ardea alba, Lmn.
GEEAT WHITE HEEON.
ARDEA ALBA, Linn.
Ardea alba, Linn. S. N. i. p. 239 (1766); Yarr. ed. 4, iv.
p. 177; Dresser, vi. p. 231.
Ardea egretta, Naum. ix. p. 85, xiii. p. 255.
Egretta nigrirostris et alba, Macg. iv. pp. 460, 465.
Heron aigrette, French; Silberreiher, German; Garza
blanca, Spanish.
This beautiful bird rarely straggles so far to the
westward as Great Britain; some eighteen or twenty
have been recorded as " seen,” and eight or nine of
them obtained in England and Scotland. A very fine
adult bird, with fully-developed dorsal plumes, was
killed in Thorney Fen, Cambridgeshire, in May or June
1849, and is specially referred to here for the reason
that it is preserved in the collection of my friend
Colonel C. J. Strong, of Thorpe Hall, near Peterborough,
who invited Mr. Thorburn to inspect it for
the purposes of this work; I may mention, however,
that the figure in the Plate was mainly taken by the
latter gentleman from living specimens at Lilford.
My own acquaintance with this Heron in a wild
state is principally confined to the marshes of Epirus