204 THE NESTS AND EGGS OF 



Swinhoe's experience of this species in China the eggs 

 are laid at intervals, and sat upon at once. 



Diagnostic characters : The eggs of the Night 

 Heron cannot always be distinguished from those of the 

 Little Egret, but are generally much larger. Eggs of 

 the Buff-backed Heron also resemble them in size, but 

 are always much paler in colour. The eggs of all these 

 smaller herons require the most careful identification. 



Family ARDEID^. Genus Ardea. 



BUFF-BACKED HERON. 



Ardea bubulcus, Aicdoui?t. 

 (British : Very rare abnormal spring and autumn migrant.) 



Single Brooded. Laying season, May and June. 

 (N. Hemisphere.) 



Breeding area : Ethiopian region and extreme 

 south-western Pala^arctic region ' (Spain and Palestine). 

 The Buff-backed Heron breeds commonly in the south- 

 ern portions of the Spanish peninsula (in the marshes 

 of Andalucia), and throughout Africa, from Morocco to 

 Egypt in the north, down to the Cape Colony and 

 Madagascar in the south. 



Breeding habits : The Buff-backed Heron is a 

 summer migrant to the only part of Europe in which 

 it breeds, reaching Andalucia in March ; elsewhere it 

 appears to be sedentary. This Heron is gregarious 

 like so many of its congeners, breeding in -colonies of 

 varying size. Of its pairing habits nothing apparently 

 is known. Its breeding haunts are not only in swampy 



