Egg-roUecting in Asia Minor. 415 



Soon after we reached the edge of tlie marsh we 

 began to see many interesting birds : a pair of Blaek- 

 winged Stilts {Himantojnts candidu)^), two pairs of Spur- 

 winged Plovers [Hoplopterus spinosus), Great White Egrets 

 {Ardea alba), Little Egrets {Ardea gurzetta), Purple 

 Herons {Ardea inirpurea), Night- Herons [Nycticorax 

 griseus), Squacco Herons [Ardea ralloides), and Little 

 Bitterns [Ardetta minuta). A good many Ducks, too, were 

 flying about, of species which I could not identify with any 

 certainty, besides numbers of graceful swallow-like White- 

 winged Black Terns [Hydrochelidon leucoptera). Among the 

 bushes which liere and there skirted the marsh flitted numbers 

 of Grey-backed Warblers {Aedon famiUaris), conspicuous 

 from their ruddy brown tails, which when expanded showed 

 the edging of black and white very plainly. These birds 

 had, I fancy, only just arrived in Asia Minor from their 

 winter haunts in Africa, and had not yet commenced to 

 nest. 



When Mr. B. H questioned our guides as to where 



the different species of Herons and Egrets nested, we found 

 that tliey had no exact knowledge themselves, though 

 they said they would be able to get precise information 

 from some of the shepherds who were scattered over the 

 plain near the marsh, tending herds of camels, horses, and 

 cattle. One after another of these men was, however, 

 cross-examined and found to be hopelessly ignorant of the 

 actual breeding-sites of the birds the eggs of which we wished 

 to take. Everyone professed to know that all the many sorts 

 of birds we had seen nested somewhere in the reeds, but as 

 the marsh before us was miles and miles in extent this 

 general knowledge did not help us much. At last we came 

 across a man who told us that he could show us nests and 

 eggs in the reeds, and as he said he had taken 500 eggs 

 only a few days before for food, we thought he must know the 

 breeding-station of a Heron-colony. He told us that the 

 water in the marsh was nowliere deep, and ofi'ered to take us 

 on horseback to that part of it where he had lately collected 

 numbers of eggs, if we would wait until he caught one of 



