Kast London, Cape Piorbirc. 87 



persisted in associatino- with a, Grey Heron rather tlian with 

 its own kin, which might be taken as indicatinof that tlie 

 other two were mating. A farmer there tohl me that for 

 some years he had seen a pair of these birds in that neigh- 

 bourhoo(], but thoiigli they kept pretty nuich to the same 

 stretch of river yet he h.ad never been able to make out 

 whether they were breeding. 



I liave also seen them during Cliristmas weeks at tlie 

 mouths of the Keskama and other rivers, and on 20tli 

 August, 1910, a couple of birds were descriliod to me as 

 liaving stayed in the vicinity of the "ebb and flow " of the 

 Buffalo Eiver throughout the first half of that month, which 

 I could not regard as answering to anything else than 

 Herodia.t alha. The details given included an item decidedly 

 pointing to there having been a shining metal ring upon the 

 leg of one of these birds. If any European ornithologist 

 has been bestowing such attention upon this species, he 

 would be interested to hear of this observation, though, of 

 course, there is nothing decisive about it. South African 

 bird-lovers do not live in the open : most of them are cooped 

 u}) in offices, and seldom can follow up a bit of news like 

 this when it comes to their ears. 



But since some of our White Stork visitors have l)een 

 reported by competent ornithologists this year as having 

 remained on into June with us, the significance of only an 

 observation or two as to the occurrence of a species at any 

 time in South Africa must be carefully interpreted. 



Yellow-billed Egret. (Herodias hraclnjrlnjnclui.) 



Little Egret. (Ilerodias f/arzeffa.) 



I have watched both of these species feeding upon the 

 mud-flats of our rivers during the summer months. 



In November 1908 I noticed a score or more of the first- 

 mentioned walking about the veld with about the same 

 number of White Storks near the town of Alice. They were 

 all going in company, and I have been wondering why that 

 particular bit of veld attracts the Siork, because in the 



