GREAT WHITE EGRET. 479 



slowly up and down the marshy banks of a stream, or stands motionless, 

 sometimes on one leg, in the water patiently watching for food. It is very 

 rarely that this bird allows the observer to approach it sufficiently near to 

 get a good view of it, and generally it takes wing the moment it is 

 alarmed. Its flight is moderately slow, performed by a series of regular 

 flappings of the wings. It seems more buoyant in the air than the 

 Common Heron, and looks more graceful. Its flight is ofterr prolonged 

 for a considerable distance, and the bird is very conspicuous as it flaps 

 slowly over the dense waving reeds. The Great White Egret may be seen 

 in little parties all through the breeding-season, and in winter congregates 

 into much larger flocks. It also mingles freely with other species of 

 Herons ; but its large size is always enough to distinguish it from its 

 congeners. It does not appear to frequent the most secluded and inac- 

 cessible parts of the marshes and reed-beds so much as their borders. It 

 seldom, if ever, pushes its way through the dense and almost impene- 

 trable reeds like the Bittern, but haunts the little open spaces and the 

 borders of the swamps, and is very fond of the tangled herbage on the 

 bank of a stream. It often wades for some distance in the water, and 

 seems as partial to running streams as to still lakes and ponds. 



The food of the Great White Egret is principally composed of small fish, 

 but great quantities of water-insects and their larvae, frogs, and small 

 mammals are captured. The bird appears to obtain the greater part, if 

 not all, its food in the daytime ; but it may seek for it at night when the 

 moon is at or near the full. The note of the Great White Egret is a harsh 

 and deep bark ; but it is only occasionally heard. The note of the young 

 birds is described by Homeyer as kek, rapidly repeated. 



In Europe the breeding-season of the Great White Egret takes place in 

 May, and eggs may be obtained from the middle of that month till the 

 middle of June. Its nesting-places are selected on some low swampy 

 island, or in a large dense thicket of reeds. In India the eastern form of 

 the Great White Egret is said invariably to make its nest in trees. Both 

 forms appear often to take up their residence with other species, and 

 generally make their nest in the same tree as Ibises, Pigmy Cormorants, 

 Night-Herons, and Little Egrets. The nest is a moderately large struc- 

 ture, almost exclusively made of sticks, the larger and coarser ones form- 

 ing the outside and the finer twigs the lining ; but when it is placed in 

 swamps it is made of dead reeds and portions of aquatic vegetation suit- 

 able for the purpose. The nest is broad and quite flat, and by the time 

 the young are able to fly is so trodden about as only to resemble a mere 

 heap of sticks. It appears that the old nests are repaired and enlarged in 

 many cases, in a similar manner to those of the Rook. The eggs are 

 generally three or four in number, sometimes five; they are greenish 

 blue, rough in texture, and possess no gloss. They vary from 2' 7 to 2'35 



