650 ARDEID^. 



Head black ; back of neck glossed with purple, also the upper back, breast 

 and upper abdomen ; neck white ; primaries and upper tail coverts glossed 

 with green, also the lower back ; tail white ; irides crimson ; eyelids and nude 

 orbitar area plumbeous ; throat purplish ; bill black, reddish on the anterior 

 half ; feet red. 



Length.^ to 37 inches; extent 70; wing 20; tail 7 ; bill at front 6. 



ff a b f _Sind, Punjab, N.-W. Provinces, Oudh, Bengal, Kutch (?), Raj- 

 putana (?), Guzerat, Concan, Deccan, South and Central India ; also British 

 Burmah and Ceylon. j 



Family, ARDEnXE. HERONS. 



All the members of the Ardeidce 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 and Eggs, gives the average size of the 

 eggs of the different species : 



Ardea cinerea 2*27 x 



Ardea purpurea 2^17 x 



Herodias alba 2*11 x 



Herodias garzetta 1*73 x 



Demiegretta gularis r 7 x 



Bubulcus coromanda 1-71 x 



Ardeola grayi 1*48 x 



Butorides javanica 1-64 x 



66 

 56 

 55 



22 



' 3 



3 2 



23 



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 Ardeidce in India generally, and along the canals, &c., 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 



