26 BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS. 



on the tops of palm, tamarisk, and acacia trees the Tufted Benno is often so 

 represented in the ancient pictures ; and after dusk, when the other water-fowl 

 have settled down for the night, the unweildy form of the Night-Heron, with head 

 well back, silent, and measured flappings of its great fan-shaped wings, is apt to 

 startle the unwary traveller as it passes overhead, uttering its well-known 

 ' wah ' ' waak.' " 



Mr. Styan, a well-known authority on Chinese birds, says that there are many 

 heronries of this bird round Foochoo. " Generally they are placed," he says, 

 " near a village, and the natives, probably from some superstitious motive, will 

 not allow them to be interfered with. I once was allowed to visit one of these 

 places, but not until I had promised not to disturb the birds. This heronry was 

 established in a clump of pine trees, which covered a hillock, overlooking the 

 village. The nests were placed on the summits of the pines, and numbers of 

 Herons were flying about or sitting on the nests." 



The food of the Night-Heron consists of small fish, frogs, and water insects. 



Family ARDEID^E. 



THE LITTLE BITTERN. 



Ardetta minuta, LINN. 



THE Little Bittern has been seen and taken in most parts of England, Scot- 

 land, and Ireland, though less frequently in the two latter countries than 

 in the former; and naturally oftener in the counties of England nearer to the 

 Continent, and in those specially, which, like Norfolk, with its extensive reedy 

 " Broads," provide the situations it likes best to frequent. Dr. Sharpe agrees with 

 Mr. Howard Saunders, in thinking that the evidence is strong enough to affirm 

 that it undoubtedly bred, in former days, in this country, and that even " recent 

 instances of its doing so are not unknown." 



