SIX months' bird collecting in EGYPT. 209 



173. Buff-backed Heron, Ardeola mssata (Wagl). 

 (Hasselquist, 25) ; "Abu guirdan." 



Is In some respects the most noticeable bird upon the 

 Nile, though far commoner below Cairo than above it. I 

 shot one in winter with a good buff plume, but that is 

 very rare. Nine-tenths of what the traveller sees are as 

 white as alabaster. When he beholds them perched like 

 the purest of statuettes upon a gnarled old sycamore-fig, or 

 peering out from among the leaves of the Nabuk, he needs 

 no dragoman's prompting to convince him that now indeed 

 he has before him the veritable Ibis rcligiosa. As in 

 England the Crane has bequeathed its name in certain 

 parts to the Heron, and the Bustard to the Stone-Curlew, 

 so the Buff-back has inherited that of the Sacred Ibis in 

 Egypt. 



In the meadow land of the Delta they are very common, 

 and I have sat sometimes watching them by the hour. 

 Generally they will be in attendance on a herd of buffaloes, 

 pecking gnats off their legs, or scrutinising their foot-prints. 

 The cattle and their masters are so much indebted to them 

 that they become very unwary. I have seen one almost 

 driven over by a man who was ploughing with two oxen. I 

 think they prefer the fields very much to the river, indeed I 

 do not remember ever seeing them wading in the water like 

 other Herons. In April we saw scarcely any except a few 

 large flocks on migration. One of these was drawn up on 

 the Nile banks. Another was on an uncovered sandbank 

 with some Ruffs and Caspian Terns. Then for an interval 

 we did not see any, but in May I again found a i^^ in a 

 field near Minieh. They fly slowly with the neck and head 

 drawn in like a Little Egret. If they come unexpectedly 

 on a concealed gunner, they stretch them out and utter a 

 cry which is dissonant, but not so loud as an Egret's. I 



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