166 ARDEID^. 



Family, ARDEID^.— Herons. 



All the members of the ArdeidtB family swarm throughout India in suitable 

 localities. All are permanent residents and breed from May to September. 

 Their nests are generally loose structures, some more or less compact, and 

 built of twigs, &c., on trees, standing in the vicinity of water, and particularly 

 on those in the middle of large sheets of water. Eggs, 3 to 4, glossless, and 

 in colour from pale sea green to bluish green, but it is not uncommon to find 

 single nests containing from 8 to 10 eggs, differing in shape, size and colour. 



The following, from Hume's Nests ami Eggs, gives the average size of the 



eggs of the different species : — 



Ardea cinerea 2*27 x i-66 



Ardea purpurea 217 x 1*56 



Herodias alba 2-Ii x 1-55 



Herodias garzetla 173 X P22 



Demiegretta gularis r 7 x !• 3 



Buhulcus coromanda i']\ x i'32 



Ardeola grayi l"48 x riy 



Butorides javanica r64 x r23 



An account by Layard of the breeding of Herodias garzetta and kindred 



species in Ceylon, conveys exactly what is observable in the breeding season 



of the ArdeidiC in India generally, and along the canals, kc, in the Narra 



Districts, and other large sheets of water in Sind. 



During this season almost all the large pieces of water in India, unfrequented 

 and distant from human habitation, in which trees are standing out of 

 reach, except by boats, large colonies of ibises, spoonbills, cormorants, snake- 

 birds, night-herons, &c., may be seen. During the day, except by the drop- 

 pings of the birds, which coat the branches so thickly with lime, little suspicion 

 would be excited of the spot being a heronry, as most of the birds, except a 

 few sitting close, are away feeding, but towards eve, hundreds would be seen 

 coming to roost, amid a continuous cackling. The report of a gun amongst 

 them would present a scene scarcely describable. If disturbed before they 

 have begun to lay, they are said to entirely desert the spot, and carry away 

 almost every stick they had used in building and to begin operations afresh 

 in a distant locality. 



Gen. Ardea — Linn. 



Bill slender, the tip scooped ; upper mandible with a groove from the 

 nostril, but not extending to the tip ; nostril covered partially by membrane; 

 2nd and 3rd quills longest ; tarsi long and scutellate in front. 



205. Ardea goliath, Temm., PL Col. 474 ; Rupp., Faun. Abyss. 

 pi. 26; Jerd., B. Ind. iii. p. 739; Hume, Nesls and Eggs Lid. B. p. 610, No. 



