are in the varied autumnal plumage so common in British-killed specimens, showing partial remains of the summer plumage; but one I have, killed in November, 1875, was in most complete winter plumage, there not being a single dark or margined feather on the bird.  This perfect state of winter plumage is by no means common either in British or Channel Island specimens, so much so that I do not think I have seen one in such perfect winter plumage before.

The Grey Phalarope is included in Professor Ansted’s list, but no letters marking its distribution through the Islands are added, perhaps because it was considered to be generally distributed through all of them.  There is no specimen at present in the Museum.

128.  HERON. Ardea cinerea, Linnaeus.  French, “Heron cendre”, “Heron huppe.”—­A good many Herons may be seen about the Islands at all times of the year; those that remain through the summer, though scattered over all the Islands, are probably all non-breeding birds.  I have seen them fishing along the shore in Guernsey, Herm, Alderney, and the rocky islands north of Herm, but I have never seen or heard of an egg being found in either of the Islands, nor have I ever seen anything that bore the most remote resemblance to the nest of a Heron.  Mr. MacCulloch, however, writes to me as follows:  “The Heron is said to breed occasionally on the Amfrocques and others of those small islets north of Herm.”  Mr. Howard Saunders, Col.  L’Estrange, and myself, however, visited all these islets this last breeding season (1878), and though we saw Herons about fishing in the shallow pools left by the tide, we could see nothing that would lead us to suppose that Herons ever bred there, in fact, though Herons have been known to breed on cliffs by the sea; the Amfroques and all the other little wild rocky islets are apparently the most unlikely places for Herons to breed on.  In Guernsey itself, however, it is more likely that a few Herons formerly bred, and that there was once a small Heronry in the Vale.  As Mr. MacCulloch writes to me, “There is a locality in the parish of St. Samson, at the foot of Delancy Hill, in the vicinity of the marshes near the Ivy Castle, formerly thickly wooded with old elms, which bears the name of La Heroniere.  It may have been a resort of Herons, but I am bound to say the name may have been derived from a family called ‘Heron,’ now extinct.”  It seems to me also possible that the family derived their name from being the proprietors of the only Heronry in Guernsey.  In the place mentioned by Mr. MacCulloch there are still a great many elm trees quite big enough for Herons to build in, supposing they were allowed to do so, which would not be likely at the present time.  The number of Herons in the Channel Islands seems to me to be considerably increased in the autumn, probably by wanderers from the Heronries on the south coast of Devon and Dorset; on the Dart and the Exe, and near Poole.

The Heron is included in Professor Ansted’s list, but only marked as occurring in Guernsey.  There is no specimen at present in the Museum.