THE GLOSSY-IBIS 323 



formation like geese and cranes, but small flocks may be met 

 with in a "bunched" formation, flying with more rapid wing-beats 

 than the slower herons. 



Probably the largest breeding European colony is that in the 

 Obedska Bara in Slavonia, which is protected by the Hungarian 

 Government. Mr. W. Eagle Clarke and his friends paid a visit to 

 this colony in 1883, and with considerable difficulty managed to force 

 their way through the belts of sallows and beds of reeds till at last 

 they reached the main colony, which was roughly estimated at about 

 thirty thousand birds of all species. 1 The noise of the beating of 

 wings, accompanied by harsh alarm-notes, was deafening as the main 

 body rose on the wing in alarm, but after a time they began to get 

 more accustomed to the presence of visitors, and gradually returned 

 to their nests or perched on the adjacent willows. In all directions 

 sallow trees were growing in the water, but the nests of the glossy- 

 ibis were in every instance either on the surface of the water or close 

 to it. A little higher up were the nests of the night-herons, squaccos, 

 and little-egrets, though some of the latter were also low down and 

 close to the water, while the pygmy-cormorants and common-herons 

 nested by preference in the top branches. One bush, which may be 

 taken as typical rather than exceptional, contained one nest of 

 common-heron, two of pygmy-cormorant, three of night-heron, two of 

 little-egret, one of squacco, and three of glossy-ibis ! In this colony 

 the materials used by the glossy-ibises were sticks and a few reeds, as 

 was also the case with the little-egrets, while the night- and squacco- 

 herons used sticks exclusively. Herr J. Schenk published the results 

 of a rough census of this colony in Aquila, vol. xv. (1908) pp. 245-258, 

 and estimated the number of breeding pairs of this species alone at 

 about two thousand. 



Still farther eastward there are large colonies in the great delta 

 of the Danube an interminable and only half-explored waste of reed- 

 beds and willow-swamps. Here, amongst a dense growth of reeds 



'. /bis, 1884, p. 125. 



