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 A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE area as there are no suitable building sites, but as it breeds in North Wales and in Cumberland it frequents our coasts and rivers, often ascending the estuaries for some distance chiefly in autumn and winter. It may be noted that the 'Liver' in the arms of the Corporation of Liverpool has been supposed to be the cormorant, as the same appears in the arms of the earl of Liverpool and is described in Burke's Peerage as a ' Cormorant holding in the beak a bunch of seaweed,' for which, however, as Prof. Newton remarks, there is no authority. 131. Shag or Green Cormorant. Phalacrocorax graculm (Linn.). An occasional visitor. The same obser'ations apply to the shag as to the cormorant, except that for some reason it visits our coasts less fre- quently than the latter. 132. Gannet or Solan Goose. Sula bassana (Linn.). A frequent visitor to Liverpool Bay ; more fre- quently seen 8-10 miles ofiFthe coast and during winter. [The Tropick Bird. (? Phiethon athereus ijil (Linn.). 'About two years ago (1698) by a violent hailstorm . . . there was brouj^rht a bird all white (except only a short red beak) about the bigness of a pigeon. . . I could apprehend it to be no other than what our travellers call the Tropick Bird, met with usually in crossing that Line.' (Leigh, History of Lancashire, i. pp. 164, 165 ; Table ye I of Birds, fig. 3). The illustration (1. c.) certainly represents a species of Phathon which must no doubt have been brought from the S.W. regions of the Atlantic by the storm]. 133. Heron. A rdea cinerea, hinn. Locally, Crane, Yem, Longricks, Jammy, Heron- shaw. Many heronries have existed in the county at one place and another within the last fifteen years, but the extension of cultivated land and the consequent destruction of the plantations frequented by the birds have greatly reduced their number. Isolated nests are occasionally found in suitable places throughout the county. The most important heronries still remaining are at Ince Blundell near Waterloo, where about a score of pairs breed annually, and at Scarisbrick, near Southport, where there is a colony of twenty- five to thirty pairs. Another colony of ten to twelve pairs finds a home at Ashton, near Lan- caster (Mitchell, Birds of Lancashire, ed. 2, p. 143). Macpherson {Lakeland, p. 223) records three other heronries ; one of ten to twelve pairs at Roundsea Wood, which was destroyed in 1886, but exists probably somewhere not far off, as young birds were seen on Roundsea Moss in 1 89 1 ; a second in the Rusland Valley, where annually from eight to ten pairs nest, and the third at Whittington near Kirkby Lonsdale. The bird is far from an uncommon fisher by tiie banks of all our streams and canals and by our mere margins. Notwithstanding Lancashire's poverty in heronries large and flourishing colonies exist in Yorkshire and Cheshire, from which come many of our very welcome visitors. 134. Purple Heron. Ardea purpurea,J r. One visit of this species is recorded in 1887 (Pickin, Zoologist, 1887, p. 432). 135. Night Heron. Nycticorax griseus (Linn.). No certain record of the occurrence of this species can be traced during the last twenty years ; but Mr. Davies, of Lymm in Cheshire, possesses a specimen, received by him in the flesh, killed at Newton-le- Willows some ' ten or twelve years ago' (Coward, Zoologist, 1904, p. 314). 136. Little Bittern. Ardetta minuta (Linn.). In past years an occasional summer visitor, but no record exists of its presence within our boun- daries for many years past. Bittern. Botaurus stellaris (Linn.). Locally, Butter-bump, Bittery, Bog-bumper, Mue- drum. 198 A very frequent visitor in winter, but not now known to nest within the county, although there can be little doubt that it once did so when drainage was less undertaken, and our meres and mosses were, therefore, more extensive and further from human habitation than to-day. 138. American Bittern. Botaurus lentiginosus (Montagu). One clearly authenticated occurrence is re- corded from Fleetwood on 8 December, 1895 (Cooper, Zoologist, 1846, p. 1248). 139. Glossy Ibis. Plegadis falcinellus (Linn.). This species has been observed on four occa- sions in Lancashire during the past century. A specimen, preserved in the Lord Derby Museum, Liverpool, was shot at Ormskirk, and bequeathed to the city by the thirteenth Lord Derby in 1 85 1. Some local interest attaches to this bird, as to it, amongst others, has been assigned the original of the ' Liver ' in the arms of the City of Liverpool. 'The mysterious bird that figured on the ancient Corporation Seal seems to have been an eagle, the well-known symbol of St. John the Evan- gelist ' (cf. Picton, Memorials of Liverpool, i. p. 18, and Newton, Dictionary of Birds, sub voce ' Lever or Liver ' ; also under Cormorant, No. supra). 140. Spoonbill. Platalea leucorodia, Linn. The spoonbill is recorded only once from Lan- cashire — the specimen now in the Preston Mu- seum having been taken on the Ribble in 1840 (Mitchell, Birds of Lancashire, ed. 2, p. 148). 129,