250 ARDEID^E. 



breeds all over the country in its favourite haunts, the more or less 

 tree-overshadowed banks of canals and streams (rarely jheels), 

 where it lurks during the heat of the day in low bushes, clumps of 

 rush or brushwood, or pendent leafy branches overhanging the 

 water, only as a rule making its appearance in the mornings and 

 evenings, stealthily skulking along the water's edge. 



A nest I once found was in a clump of reed and rush outside 

 the Western Jumna Canal, a few miles from Paneeput, on the 21st 

 July. It was partly supported on the twigs of a dead sunken 

 babool branch, and partly on rushes bent down over this, forming 

 a little platform about 2 feet above the water's edge. It was a 

 small stick nest, perhaps 8 inches in diameter, with a perceptible 

 depression in the centre, and contained three perfectly fresh eggs. 

 The bird rose from the nest within twenty feet of me, but not 

 knowing there was a nest there I did not lire at it, but my man 

 who was searching the rushes found it a few minutes later before 

 I had moved from the spot, and then came and pulled and pushed 

 the rushes aside so that I could see it plainly. 



Colonel Gr. F. L. Marshall remarks: ;t I found this species 

 breeding in the Muttra District in August ; on the 30th I found 

 a nest in a keekur tree at the edge of a jheel near the canal, on a 

 horizontal branch, about twenty feet from the ground. It was a 

 very slight structure of sticks. There were three young ones 

 nearly Hedged, which had left the nest and were creeping about 

 among the thorny branches, but quite unable to fly." 



Mr. Doig writes from iSind : " The Grreen Bittern is very 

 common in certain portions of the Narra. In one clump of young 

 babool trees about three hundred yards square I found fifteen nests, 

 the number of eggs varying up to five. The birds make a very 

 peculiar noise, between a hiss and a squeak, when on their nest, 

 and in several instances the noise has betrayed to me the vicinity 

 of the nest. I got their eggs from the 29th June up to the middle 

 of August. The nest was very much in size the same as a Pond- 

 Heron's, and as a rule in dense tamarisk or babool jungle in 

 water." 



And Colonel Butler, referring to the same part of the country, 

 says : " Mr. Doig and I found nests in the E. Narra on the fol- 

 lowing dates : 30th ^June a nest containing one fresh egg, 27th 

 July a nest containing five slightly incubated eggs, 28th July a 

 nest containing five chicks and another containing three incubated 

 eggs. All of these nests were found in dense thickets of tamarisk- 

 trees growing out in a dhund." 



Mr. Gr. Vidal, writing of the South Konkan, remarks : " Com- 

 mon and widely distributed both inland and on the coast. On the 

 15th April, 1878, I have found a nest in a thorny bush, a few feet 

 from the ground, on the banks of a small creeklet running into the 

 Savitri river. The nest was a small stick platform, very shallow, 

 with only a slight depression. Two fresh eggs of the usual eau de 

 nil colour were secured. In shape they were almost pure ovals, 



