358 Mr. 0. Salvin's Five Monl/is' Bu da' -nest my 



Duck {Erismnturn mersa) ; and here, too, it was that I used to set' 

 the greatest number of Red-crested Whisthnp Ducks [Brantn 

 nifinn). A distant screaming warns me to watch the Gull-billed 

 Terns {Gelochelidon anylica) as they come skimming the water, 

 making for the freshly-cut grass-fields to seek their breakfast of 

 beetles and grasshoppers. At every corner of the reeds I now 

 startle up a Little Bittern [Ardetta minuta) ; and the Grey-headed 

 Wagtail {Budytes flava) continually shows itself. Soaring over 

 the Arab tents, if the dogs allow me to look up, I see Egyptian 

 Vultures and Black Kites [Neophron percnopterus and Milvus 

 (iter), and nearer the cliffs a few Choughs and Alpine Swifts 

 {Pyn'hocorax graculus and Cypselus melba). My walk is now 

 terminated ; and, ready for breakfast, I usually find the tents 

 beset by Arabs : most of them come to talk with our servants, 

 but some with more profitable intent, bearing vegetables, 

 cooscoos and corn. The boys bring eggs or information about 

 nests — the object of another ramble. 



Though we never obtained the eggs of the Little Egret, I am 

 inclined to think it a much earlier breeder than either the Buff- 

 backed or Squacco Herons, as a female I shot at Zana, on June 

 22nd, bore every appeai'ance of having hatched its young — 

 the moulting of the feathers having advanced considerably, and 

 the eggs in the ovary being small. 



113. BuPHUS BUBULCUS. (BufF-backed Heron.) 

 Though local, the BufF-backed Heron occurs abundantly 

 where it is found, I first met with it near Bizerta and after- 

 wards at Zana, at which latter place it was common, a large flock 

 frequenting the marsh. We did not obtain any of their eggs, 

 and to all appearance the birds had not entered upon their do- 

 mestic duties when we left their haunts. Is the bird mentioned 

 in Mr. E. C. Taylor's ' Ornithological Reminiscences of Egypt,' 

 and called by him Ardea russata and Ardea bubulcus, Savigny, 

 this bird, or its Indian representative * ? The eggs from Ceylon 



* We believe that there is no doubt that the Egyptian bird is the true 

 Buff-backed Herou — the same species which occurs iu England. The 

 In(Han Ardea coromanda, Bodd., to which bird Temminck first applied the 

 epithet rtissata (Sec Man. d'Orn. ed. 2. p. [>(](]), is not separable, according 

 to G. R. Graj, but is distinguished by Bonaparte (Consp. ii. p. 125). 



