i66 JUNGLE FOLK 



water, they return to their day quarters, where they 

 are popularly supposed to sleep. They may possibly 

 spend the day in slumber when they have neither 

 nests to build nor young to feed. I am not in a position 

 to deny this, never having visited a heronry on such an 

 occasion. I speak, however, as one having authority 

 when I say that all through the nesting season the 

 night heron works harder during the hours of daylight 

 than the British workman does. At the present time 

 (April) thirty or forty night herons are engaged in 

 nesting operations in the tall trees that grow on the 

 islands in the ornamental pond that graces the Lahore 

 Zoological Gardens, and as I visit those gardens almost 

 daily I have had some opportunity of observing the 

 behaviour of our night bird during the daytime. I 

 may here say that night herons seem very partial to 

 Zoological Gardens, inasmuch as they also resort to 

 the Calcutta " Zoo " for nesting purposes. This is, 

 of course, as it should be. Every well-conditioned 

 bird should bring up its family in a '* zoo " by 

 preference. Had birds the sense to understand this, 

 many of them would be spared the miseries of 

 captivity. 



Before discoursing upon its nesting habits it is 

 fitting that I should try to describe the night heron, 

 so that the bird may be recognised when next seen. 

 I presume that everyone knows what a heron looks 

 like, but possibly there exist persons who would be at 

 a loss to say wherein it differs from a stork or a crane. 

 It may be readily distinguished from the latter by 

 its well-developed hind toe. Storks and herons are 



