46 Occasional Notes. 



making little or no headway, until he gives up in despair 

 and turning is driven mercilessly before the blast until he 

 " flops " into the grass and so escapes from the struggle. 

 I agree with Davies's remarks on the polygamous habit, viz. 

 that young females are often mistaken for males, but he is 

 mistaken in his assertion that this habit is not imputed to the 

 Pyromelana as well. In my paper on Protective Resem- 

 blance I mention this fact; but as regards this species Mr. A. 

 Duncan once pointed out, at a meeting of the Johannesburg 

 Field Naturalists' Club, the common error of mistaking 

 young males for females. Alwin Haagner. 



Zoo, Pretoria, 

 29. 9. 10. 



9. Occurrence of White Egret with Ring. 



Dear Mr. Haagner, — I presume you have information 

 from other countries as to w'hich kinds of birds have been 

 "riuffed^' for mioration records. 



It seems that two weeks ago a pair of large white Egrets 

 i^Herodias alba) were seen on the Buffalo River near here, 

 and that one of them had a narrow shining ring on its leg 

 which looked like metal. The man who told me this said he 

 saw them almost every day for a fortnight, and that he 

 generally got quite close to them as he passed in a boat. 

 He is very confident that what he noticed on the leg of one 

 of them, as it stood near him on a rock, was a ring. He 

 described the birds first as Storks [Ciconia ciconia), but upon 

 closely questioning him I feel sure they were Egrets. 



If you have had any notification as to the Large Egret 

 having been " ringed ^'you will presumably pass on this item. 



Yours sincerely, Jno. Wood. 

 East London, C.C., 

 5. 9. 10. 



[There seems little doubt that the birds were Egrets ; 

 this species has also been marked in Hungary. — Edd.] 



