ARDEA PURPUREA, Linn.
Purple Heron.

Ardea purpurea, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 236.

caspia, S. G. Gmel. Reise, tom. ii. p. 193, tab. 14.
—— botaurus, Gmel. edit. Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 636.
=== Foye, Cite, Wok, Do OA

—— purpurata, Gmel. ibid., p. 641.

—— rubiginosa, Gmel. ibid., p. 632.

—— purpurascens, Brehm, Vig. Deutschl., p. 583.

—— variegata, Scop. Ann., tom. i. no. 120.

 

—— monticola, La Peyr.

 

In structure, plumage, and ornamentation this bird is somewhat intermediate between the Common Heron
and the Bittern ; for it has the lengthened plumes and scantily clothed neck of the former, with the shorter
legs and wide-spread toes of the latter. And so it is as regards its habits, manners, and economy. Like
the Bittern, the Purple Heron is shy and recluse, frequenting rushy and watery marshes rather than the
open country. Its nidification takes place among the reeds or on shrubby alders in the midst of swamps ;
while, as is well known, the Common Heron, with but few exceptions, nests on trees such as Scotch
firs and oaks, at a considerable height above the ground. In number and colouring, the eggs of both
birds are very similar. The principal food of the Common Heron is fish ; while that of the Purple Heron
consists of shrews, mice, frogs, reptiles, and insects—not that it will refuse fish if they come in its way. The
Common Heron, with its long straight legs, exposes itself on the banks of rivers and estuaries, whence, always
alert, it scans the surrounding districts. The present species, on the contrary, aided by its lengthened toes,
skulks among the herbage on the watery beds of reeds and aquatic plants, from which it is not easily
made to take wing ; and then it only flies for a short distance to a place of greater security. Ornithologists
generally admitting that these birds greatly differ, it is somewhat singular that they have never been
generically separated and a distinctive name given to the Purple Heron.

However widely spread over the Old World the present species may be, it must only be regarded as a
casual visitor to Britain, and its visits as both infrequent and irregular ; still Yarrell states that ‘ since the days
of Pennant and Montagu many examples, in different states of plumage, have occurred in this country, par-
ticularly on the southern coast—one recorded by Dr. Edward Moore, of Plymouth, and others by Mr. Selby
and Mr. Hoy; so that no doubt can remain of the propriety of inclading it in a history of British birds.
Mr. Couch, of Polperro, sent Bewick a drawing taken from a specimen which alighted on a fishing-boat two
or three leagues from the coast of Cornwall. The bird was caught and brought on shore alive, but soon
died. Dr. Edward Moore notices two examples, both young birds, in Devonshire. In February 1839,
Plumptre Methuen, Esq., sent me word that he bad obtained a specimen shot near Plymouth.” Mr. Selby,
who published in 1833, says, “* I may mention that, in the month of May 1830, a fine male Purple Heron
that was killed in Norfolk came into my possession, and its mate into that of Sir William Jardine ;” and in
a note, adds, ‘‘ Since writing the above I have heard of three other specimens, two killed in Norfolk, and
another near to London.” Mr. Hoy, in the ‘ Magazine of Natural History’ for 1837 (vol. x. p. 116), says :—
«Some time in the month of November 1835, a Purple Heron was obtained on the borders of a large piece
of water, known by the name of King’s Fleet, near the mouth of the Woodbridge river, in Suffolk. The bird
rose from the thick reeds which skirt the water, and was at first supposed to have been a Bittern by the
person who shot it. This bird was in the plumage of the first year. From the redness of its colours at this
age it may be readily mistaken for the Bittern when first seen. I have known two other instances of this
species of Heron occurring in this county. I have also known two or three individuals to have been met
with in Norfolk within a few years.” Mr. Thompson has also made known one instance of this bird having
been killed in Ireland.

Mr. Stevenson, in his ‘Birds of Norfolk,’ after enumerating and repeating some of the occurrences
mentioned by Yarrell, says, ‘‘ Of late years I have known of but two specimens obtained in Norfolk, both in
immature plumage. The first was shot on Hoveton broad on the Ist of July, 1862, by Lord Lilford, who,
with a small party, was Flapper-shooting at the time. Another, in my own collection, was purchased in the
Norwich market on the 28th of October, 1865; this bird, which was fat, weighed two pounds three ounces,