129.  PURPLE HERON. Ardea purpurea, Linnaeus.  French, “Heron pourpre.”—­The Purple Heron is an occasional accidental wanderer to all the Islands.  Mr. MacCulloch writes me word, “I have notes of that beautiful bird, the Purple Heron, being killed here (Guernsey) in May, 1845, and in 1849; also in Alderney on the 8th May, 1867.”  Curiously enough Mr. Rodd records the capture of one, a female, near the Lizard, in Cornwall, late in April of the same year.[20] When at Alderney this summer (1878) I was told that a Heron of some sort, but certainly not a Common Heron, had been shot in that Island about six weeks before my visit on the 27th of June.  Accordingly I went the next morning to the bird-stuffer, Mr. Grieve, and there I found the bird and the person who shot it, who told me that it rose from some rather boggy ground at the back of the town—­that he shot at it and wounded it, but it flew on towards the sea; and as it was getting rather late he did not find it till next morning, when he found it dead near the place he had marked it down the night before.  It was in consequence of going to look up this bird that I found the Greenland Falcon before mentioned, which had been shot by the same person.  These are all the instances I have been able to collect of the occurrence of the Purple Heron in the Channel Islands.

It is, however, included in Professor Ansted’s list, and marked as occurring in Guernsey, probably on the authority of one of the earlier specimens mentioned by Mr. MacCulloch.  There is no specimen at present in the Museum.

130.  SQUACCO HERON. Ardeola cornuta, Pallas.  French, “Heron crabier.”—­I have in my collection a Guernsey-killed specimen of the Squacco Heron, which Mr. Couch informed me was shot in that island in the summer of 1867, and from inquiries I have made I have no doubt this information is correct.  Mr. MacCulloch also writes to me to say, “A Squacco Heron was shot in the Vale Parish on the 14th of May, 1867, no doubt the one Couch sent to you.”  This was duly recorded by me in the ‘Zoologist’ for 1872, and is, I believe, the first recorded instance of its occurrence in the Channel Islands.

It is not mentioned in Professor Ansted’s list, and there is no specimen in the Museum.

131.  BITTERN. Botaurus stellaris, Linnaeus.  French, “Heron grand butor,” “Le grand butor.”—­Bitterns were probably at one time more common in Guernsey than they are at present, drainage and better cultivation having contributed to thin their numbers, as it has done in England; and Mr. MacCulloch tells me that in his youth they were by no means uncommon.  Of late years, however, they have become much more uncommon, though, as he adds, specimens have been shot within the last three or four years.  They seem now, however, to be confined to occasional autumnal and winter visitants.  Mr. Couch says (’Zoologist’ for 1871):—­“On the 30th December, 1874, after a heavy fall of snow,