410 ARDEID^. 



THE LITTLE EGEET 



ARDEA GARZETTA. 



In colour closely resembling the last, but mueli smaller. Length two feet. 



Eggs v/hite. 



A RARE and beautiful bird, which cannot be said to haunt 

 the British Isles, though a few specimens have from time 

 to time been obtained here ; nor is it more frequent in 

 Erance or the adjoining countries. In Turkey, Greece, 

 and Italy, it is less uncommon. In the lakes and swamps 

 of Hungary it is yet more frequent, but its favourite places 

 of resort seem to be the country between the Black and 

 Caspian Seas, Asia Minor, and some parts of Africa. 

 " The scapulars and crest were formerly much esteemed 

 as ornaments for caps and head pieces ; so that aigrette 

 and egret came to signify any ornament to a cap, though 

 originally the word was derived from aigre, harsh, on 

 account of the harshness of its note.'' * 



THE BUFF-BACKED HEROK ' 



ARDEA RUSSATA. 



Crest and upper plumage orange colour and white ; lore, beak, and irides, yellow 

 legs yellow, tinged at the joints with lead colour. Length twenty inches. 

 Eggs unknown. 



An inhabitant of Asia, Africa, and occasionally of the 

 southern parts of Europe, thus described by a French 

 naturalist : — " The Garde-boeuf Heron, never seen in 

 France except near the mouth of the Ehone, is a charm- 

 ing bird about the size of a Pigeon, which follows the 

 cattle in the fields, and returns with them to their stalls. 

 It is the gentlest, most familiar, and most harmless of all 

 the feathered friends of man. Its office is to serve as an 

 escort to the flocks at pasture, and to watch them in the 



* Pennant's "British Zoology," vol. ii. p. 22. 



