ikely 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.

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