268 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



173. Lesser Egret, Herodias garzetta (Linn.) ; 

 " Baiad." 



It was not until March that we fell in with this exquisite 

 wader. I believe that it is comparatively scarce in winter, 

 but that there is a northward movement in April. On our 

 return journey from Assouan a good many were seen and 

 shot, some with a beautiful plume, others showing scarcely 

 a trace of it. Probably a few individuals do not assume it. 



We found it nowhere so common as at the Faioum in 

 June, where we shot some superb specimens, and others 

 with no plume at all. Nor is this a sexual difference, as the 

 female has sometimes quite as fine a plume as the male. 

 They were evidently about to breed with the Buff-backs. 

 Two were seen with nesting materials in their beaks ; one 

 was carrying a stick a yard long, but he appeared un- 

 decided which nest to put it on, as after twice flying away 

 and returning with it, he left the tamarisks in disgust, 

 determined to sacrifice his long stick rather than let me 

 see where the nest was. 



The Egret is not invariably a solitary, for on the 21st of 

 April I saw fifteen together with a flock of Spoonbills, and 

 on the 1st of May four were killed out of a flock of nine. 

 I have often seen them dancing, and supposed they were 

 catching flies, but I never saw them set up the dorsal aigrette. 



The cere is bluish in April, becoming much brighter in 

 June; the beak is sometimes covered with a bloom, some- 

 times not; the colour of the eye is yellow, but somewhat 

 variable. It would be easy to produce several instances 

 of variableness in the iris of birds. In the young Ring Dove* 

 the iris is white, in the adult it is yellow ; but on the 3rd of 

 June, 1 87 1, I saw a Ring Dove which had the irides slate- 

 coloured. 



'■' Colinnba palambus^ L. 



