252 HERON TRIBE 



night, the daylight hours being passed in repose. In India these 

 herons may often be seen in considerable numbers roosting during the 

 day in " topes," or clumps, of large trees, such as tamarinds, mangoes, 

 or palms ; and flying forth at sunset in search of food, which consists 

 of frogs, fishes, and other creatures found in marshes. On the wing 

 they move with a heavy, lumbering flight, uttering from time to time 

 their monotonous cry of qzvdl — a cry from which the bird derives its 

 ordinary vernacular name in India. The breeding-colonies of the 

 night-heron are often in close association with those of herons and 

 egrets ; the stick-built nests, with their clutches of from four to five 

 pale sea-green eggs being placed in tall trees. In Kashmir these birds 

 breed in April and May, and in Ceylon in March, but in the plains of 

 India the nesting season is deferred till July and August, by which 

 time the periodical rains are in full force. In Europe night-herons 

 spend much of their time skulking in marshes, although their building 

 places are usually in trees. 



Incidentally it has been mentioned that the green-herons of the 

 genus Butorides differ from the night-herons by the length of the beak 

 exceeding that of the shank of the leg. Of the American little green- 

 heron {^Butorides viresccns^ a single example was taken in Cornwall in 

 the autumn of 1889. 



Little Bittern ^^^ true bitterns differ markedly from the herons 

 (Ardetta minuta) ^"^^ egrets not only by the circumstance that they 

 have ten, in place of twelve, tail-feathers, but likewise 

 by their colouring, which is mottled black, brown, and buff, of the 

 same general type as that of woodcock and snipe, and obviously 

 adapted for protective resemblance among dry reeds and such -like 

 covert ; whereas the green colour of night-herons is for the purpose of 

 rendering the birds inconspicuous among the foliage of the trees in 

 which they roost. The little bitterns, of which there are several species, 

 in respect of colour are in some degree intermediate between the green- 

 herons and night-herons on the one hand and their larger relatives on 

 the other. As implied by their name, they are birds of small relative 

 size ; and are specially characterised by the circumstance that the 

 middle toe, with its claw, is not longer than the beak. The sexes 

 differ in plumage ; the back of the neck is bare of feathers, and 

 covered only with short down, but this featherless tract is concealed 

 by the long feathers on each side ; the head is surmounted by a small 

 crest ; and the feathers of the upper part of the breast are so lengthened 

 as to hang over and conceal those on the lower portion of the same. 



