BUFF-BACKED HERON 



Ardeola russata 



General plumage white, delicately tinged with buff on head, 

 nape, crop, and back ; beak and bare skin round eye, 

 yellow ; eye, light yellow ; legs, olive-black. Total length, 

 20-5 inches. 



This is the bird that is most often called the Egret, 

 and it is very similar, as in its winter plumage it is 

 practically white all over — just a line of buff on 

 the crown. It is of the greatest service to the 

 cattle when feeding or resting, as it seems to know 

 no fear, and settles on their backs, one or two at a 

 time, and diligently searches for flies and ticks and 

 all those parasitic things that infest the poor brutes. 

 I have seen them walk right up to one of the 

 recumbent buffaloes, and go solemnly picking 

 things off it all the way round its face, even off its 

 eyes, whilst the creature never ceased chewing the 

 cud, and one saw its jaw going solemnly round and 

 round whilst the bird did its best to free it from 

 the pests. What Egypt would be without all 

 these birds, who are ceaselessly at work clearing the 

 air of insect life, it is appalling to contemplate, for 

 with them the clouds of flies, midges, mosquitoes 



155 



