NOTES ON THE WATERS OF WESTERN INDIA. 107 



crabs, and tadpoles, lizards, grasshoppers, and, it is said, sometimes 

 snakes, and even field mice. 



This fowl of a mixed diet is sometimes eaten himself by the lord 

 of creation, under the name of " beefsteak bird" for a change. Sib is 

 his frequent neighbour, the Pelican ibis, (Tantalus leucoeephalus), 

 who lives in much the same way and in the same places, and is 

 not uncommon here. The white ibis is found on the larger rivers, 

 often along with its relative, the spoonbill ; neither is common, and 

 neither can eat many fish, though they prohably do not spare spawn 

 when they find it. Both are eatable, though coarse in flavour. 

 The shell ibis is almost unknown ; the glossy brown ibis rare ; and 

 the red-headed black ibis has hardly the habits of a water bird at all. 

 I regret to say that upon slight temptation he becomes a mere 

 scavenger ; but in places where he cannot get at dirt, he is, though 

 coarse, quite eatable. 



These ibises have intruded themselves wrongfully between the 

 storks and the herons, which are numerically exceedingly abun- 

 dant. Up to the present we have had to deal with no creature, 

 except the osprey and kingfishers, which can be called a mere 

 enemy of the fish. For the otters and the piscivorous birds 

 mentioned above (with the exceptions given) destroy more frogs, 

 water insects and Crustacea than they do fish, and all these are 

 deadly enemies of fish spawn and young fry. 



The herons, however, and most of the birds remaining for notice, 

 subsist almost entirely on fish. 



The common grey European heron is found on all the rivers and 

 tanks, and requires no special notice. The great Malayan herons, 

 A. Goliath and A. JSumatrana, are not, I think, found in this 

 Presidency, though Sir A. Burnes figured something like A, 

 Sitmatrana from Sind. A bird somewhat allied to it, the purple or 

 grass heron, is found on a few weedy tanks in the Deccan, but is not 

 common ; nor is the queer-looking night heron, which, though its 

 nocturnal habits keep it a good deal out of sight, generally lets one 

 know of its whereabouts by its peculiar and often repeated cry. 



The egrets are numerous, ar.d first amongst them is the great egret 

 {.Uerodias alba), valuable for the long feathers of its back. These 

 are at their best in the early breeding season.- — May, June ar.d July. 

 3 heir growth coincides with the change of the beak from yellow 

 to black ; and the plume-hunter should therefore not waste his shot 

 on an egret with a yellow bill. The same is the case with the lesser 



