NOTES—ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.
43
A Night Heron (Nycticorax grisens) at Brightlingsea.—We take the
following from the "Essex Standard" of December 17th, 1891 :—"On Sunday,
November 29th, an unknown bird was seen stalking about the marshes near
Brightlingsea station. On Friday, December 4th, while Mr. Bateman and Mr-
Doyle were shooting over the Brightlingsea Woods, for the second time (when
the totals reached 391 head, including 270 pheasants and 46 hares), this bird was
again flushed, just after the last shot had been fired, nearly at dusk, and con-
sequently not bagged. On December 5th, Mr. Doyle, with the keeper, again had
a look for the stranger, and this time brought him to book. It resembled a
small heron, coloured like a curlew, measuring 23 inches from tail to beak,
weight about 21 ozs. The bird was almost certainly an immaturely plumaged
'Night Heron,' Nycticorax grisens, which Bewick describes as very rare in Great
Britain ; while Gould, in 'British Birds,' says it has many times occurred in
England, but hardly ever in Ireland or Scotland. Bewick says that the brown
and white plumage is that of the female; while Gould, with much better
information at his disposal, affirms that the full plumaged bird, both male and
female, has a black crown and two long white droopers, something like quill
pens, attached to the back of the head, with a white breast and vivid green back.
According to the same authority the bird does not acquire its beautiful colouring
till fully two years old. The unearthly, unmusical croak it gives at night when
hunting for eels or frogs gave cause for its being thought a bird of ill omen in
Italy, for one of the old classic poets (the writer forgets whether Horace or some
other) speaks of it as 'Improbe nycticorax,' the 'wicked night-croaker.' The
bird has been sent to Mr. Ward, of Piccadilly, for preservation."
According to Christy's "Birds of Essex," the Night Heron has occurred but
once in Essex, at Dovercourt, on November 29th, 1880. We shall be glad to
have further particulars of the Brightlingsea bird.
The Clarke Collection of Humming Birds.—We understand that the
very fine collection of Humming Birds and allied forms, formed by the late
Alderman Joshua Clarke, at Saffron Walden, has been removed from his house
to the Saffron Walden Museum. The members of the Club had an opportunity
of seeing this collection on the occasions of two former visits to Saffron Walden.
The New British Butterfly, Hesperia lineola.—It is quite evident that
Essex will not retain the honour of having its own peculiar species of butterfly.
Hesperia lineola turned up last season in many localities, particularly in the
fens, and entomologists are beginning to think that it will ultimately prove to
be as generally distributed as its congener, H. thaumas. Many specimens were
taken last season in the neighbourhood of Leigh, where it was first discovered,
and in the "Entomologist" for January (vol. xxv., p. 17), Mr. Gervase F.
Mathew gives an interesting account of his finding the butterfly at Harwich, in
July, 1886. He also took several last July, and bred one from a pupa which he
found spun up between some blades of coarse grass. Mr. Mathew's notes on
the distinctions between the two very closely allied species, lineola and thaumas,
will be found useful.
The Essex Emerald Moth (Phorodesma Smaragdaria) in Essex.—
This almost exclusively Essex moth seems to become commoner the more it is
looked for, over 200 larvae having been taken, it is reported, during last autumn
in the salt marshes. In the case of such a local insect it is to be feared that the
rapacity of some collectors will seriously diminish its numbers, if indeed they do