hKSTLXa 1M J) KSTEl{.\ iyi)IA. 14:'. 



<>-!4. T1J1-: purpli-: ileuon. 

 Ardea yurxnirea, Lin. 



Tke Purple Heron, although not so common as the Blue Heron, 

 occurs in suitable places in all parts of the district. It is stated to 

 be a cold weather visitant only to the Deccan and Ratnagiri. 



I have never myself seen a. nest in Western India, but I have 

 hikenihe eggs at Saugor, in the Central Provinces, in the hot weather. 



They frequent dense beds of rushes and high reeds in swamps and 

 marshes, and are seldom seen far from water. 



As a rule they breed in colonies amongst these reeds, but occasion- 

 ally also in trees in company with other water birds. 



The eggs, four or five in number, are very similar to those of the 

 Blue Heron, but are rather smaller, averaging 2 - 17 inches in length 

 by about l"5o in width. 



Sind, Eastern Narra, ' S. B boig. 



925. THE LESSER WHITE HERON. 



He radius torra, B. Ham. 



The Lesser White Heron, or, as Jerdou called it, the Large E^ret, 

 occurs on all the rivers and marshes in Western India, abundantly 

 in Sind, less common elsewhere. 



It is probably more or less a permanent resident, but I am not 

 aware of the nest having been taken in the southern half of the 

 district. 



1 saw several pairs on a tall tamarind tree, growing in the com- 

 pound of a hut, close to the railway station at Wassind, about fifty 

 miles from Bombay. This was in the latter part of July, and the 

 tree was crowded with nests of the Little White Heron (fferodius 

 inter media); the Little Egret {Herodias garzetia) ; Cattle Eo-ret 

 (Bubulcus coromanda); and the Pond Heron (Ardeola grayi) ; all 

 these were sitting on their nests ; but although I watched them 

 through my binoculars for a very long time, I did not see a single 

 Large Egret on a nest, so I cannot be sure that they were breeding 

 although in all probability they were. 



