THE EUFF-BACKED CATTLE-EGRET. 87 



Adult Female.— Similar to the male but with the ornamental 

 plumes not so fully developed ; bill and bare skin about the 

 eye bright chrome-yellow ; tibiae and tarsi pale yellow ; feet 

 dusky-yellow. Total length, 18-5 inches; culmen, 2*3; wing, 

 9'3; tail, 3-1; tarsus, :^'s. 



Winter Plumage. — Entirely pure white, with none of the orna- 

 mental dorsal train-feathers or of the vinous colour on the 

 crown or fore-neck. 



Young Birds. — Resemble the winter plumage of the adults and 

 have no ornamental plumes. There is a slight tinge of rufous 

 on the back. 



Range in Great Britain. — Only one authentic occurrence of the 

 Buff-backed Heron within our limits is known, shot as long 

 ago as October, 1805, as recorded by Montagu. It is now in 

 the Gallery of the British Museum (Nat. Hist.) at South Ken- 

 sington. 



Range outside the British Islands. — The present species is a bird of 

 Southern Europe, or rather of the Mediterranean countries, and 

 seldom reaches Central Europe, though it has been recorded 

 from the South of France, Hungary, the Danube, Poland^, and 

 Southern Russia, It is distributed in suitable localities through- 

 out Africa, and its eastern range extends to Fao in the Persian 

 Gulf, where it has been found by Mr. W. D. Gumming, whose 

 specimens are in the British Museum. In the southern part 

 of the Gaspian Sea its place is said to be taken by the Indian 

 Buff-backed Heron i^BubuIcus coro?na?idus), a species which is 

 found throughout the Indian Peninsula and Ceylon, and ex- 

 tends as far north as Gorea and Japan, and as far south as 

 Celebes and Timor in the Moluccas. The birds of the 

 Caspian I should have expected to belong to the European 

 and not the Asiatic species. 



Habits. — Mr. Howard Saunders, who knows the species well 

 from personal observation, says that it is very common in the 

 marshes of Andalucia in Southern Spain, where thousands of 

 individuals may be seen amongst, or on the backs of cattle, 

 picking off ticks ; whence the name " Purgabueyes," meaning 

 " cattle-cleaners." Lord Lilford also states that he has found 

 the species " in great abundance in the great marshes of the 

 Guadalquivir below Seville during the summer. It breeds in 



