242 AEDEID.T. 



Herodias garzetta (Linn.). The Little Egret. 



Herodias garzetta (Linn.), Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 746. 



Ardea garzetta, Linn., Hume, Rough Draft N. # E. no. 927. 



Of the nidification of the Little Egret there is little to be said. 

 They breed in company with the two preceding and other species, 

 make precisely similar but smaller nests, and lay very similar eggs, 

 but rather more of them, as I have repeatedly found five and even 

 six in a nest of this species. 



With us on the north the breeding-season is July and August, 

 but in the south of the peninsula it would seem to be December, 

 while in Ceylon it would appear to be April. 



Layard gives the following account of one of the breeding- 

 places of this and other kindred species in that island. He 

 says : " Halfway between Tangalle and Matura is a large lake, 

 which an official attendance on the Supreme Court of Judicature 

 fortunately enabled me to visit. While the court officers halted 

 for the heat of the day, I set off on horseback from the rest-house 

 and galloped to the village, having sent forward mjjldus Achates, 

 Muttu, overnight with orders to prepare me a boat. This was in 

 waiting when I arrived a canoe so narrow that I could not sit in 

 it, or rather on it, with my knees together. To remedy this defect 

 Muttu had fastened a bottomless chair over it, and had woven 

 some coir-rope across the chasm. 



" The canoe, the only one to be had, was about twelve feet long, 

 worm-eaten throughout, and one end gone entirely, its place being 

 supplied with a piece of fresh turf to keep out the water ! Into 

 this I and Muttu and a steersman got, the villagers pushed us off, 

 and when fairly afloat I found the top of the gunwale about three 

 inches from the water, and that my frail vessel leaked in fifty 

 places. 



" From my elevated position I counted one, two, three, a dozen 

 alligators, and I anxiously enquired of my black and all-but-nude 

 crew if they were of the harmless kind. A shake of the head and 

 the word ' Alliekimboola ' by no means reassured me ; it meant 

 they were all man-eaters ! 



" I looked at my boat, then at the loathsome reptiles floating 

 around me, then at my boat again : it would not do. I must give 

 it up, the risk was too great ; the least sudden thoughtless move 

 might overset us. I tried the outrigger with my foot that was 

 firm ; the nigger knew his safety lay there. ' Crack ' went the 

 collecting- gun close to my ear, and down came a specimen of 

 Nycticoraoc griseus, a bird until then new to me ; this turned the 

 scale, and I ordered the boat forward ; thousands of water-birds 

 rose at the report, and soon the guns were busily employed. It 

 was full breeding-season. Herons, Spoonbills, Ibises, Pelicans, 

 &c., swarmed in the air and on the trees, while their nests were 

 so crowded as to touch each other. 



