LITTLE EGRET. 483 



The breeding-colonies of these birds on the Danube are very difficult 

 to find, and can only be approached by a boat. The nests are generally 

 placed in forests of pollard willows, but those only appear to be selected 

 that are under water at the time of the rising of the river, which 

 fixes the date for the commencement of their breeding-operations. 

 When I was in the valley of the Danube last spring we sailed down the 

 river from Giurgivo for three days without discovering a heronry ;~ but on 

 the evening of the third day, the number of Little Egrets and Night- Herons 

 which we observed feeding on the marshes, near the little river which leads 

 from the main stream to the town of Kalarash, was so great that we sus- 

 pected the existence of a heronry in the neighbourhood. After watching 

 for some time we discovered that many of the birds disappeared into a 

 dense forest of pollard willows which was situated at the west angle of 

 the junction of the two rivers. On the following morning, the 27th of 

 May, we reached it, shooting a Night- Heron on the way. As we 

 approached the forest we occasionally saw a Little Egret flying over; 

 but there was nothing to denote that we were near a large colony of birds. 

 The banks of the river were flooded in many directions, and we at length 

 succeeded in reaching the forest, though we sometimes rowed over the tops 

 of willow trees where the water was deep, and occasionally had to get 

 out and push the boat over the shallows. In the forest the water was 

 about four feet deep ; but on its outskirts it rose as high as the tops of the 

 trunks of the pollard willows, which presented a dense mass of boughs, 

 through which it was impossible to force the boat. We succeeded, how- 

 ever, in entering from behind, and by dint of pushing and squeezing, 

 and a liberal use of the axe, we reached the outskirts of the colony, 

 and having put on our wading-trousers proceeded to investigate it. 

 The water was so deep that it was impossible for us to stoop, and it was 

 with great difficulty that we selected places where the branches allowed us 

 to squeeze through them. Before we reached the nests we could hear 

 birds getting up with great flutter of wings, and our invasion of the colony 

 was heralded by incessant cries. We walked or rather squeezed in for 

 about fifty yards, threading our way through the labyrinth of boughs, and 

 found ourselves in an intensely interesting position. The trees were full 

 of nests, some of them so near the surface of the water that we could see 

 the eggs without climbing. Few nests were more than from ten to twelve 

 feet above the surface of the water, and some trees contained as many as 

 ten nests with eggs belonging to three species, the Night-Heron, the Little 

 Egret, and the Squacco Heron, those of the Little Egret being the most 

 numerous. The nests of these birds were generally placed in a fork of a 

 side branch of the pollard willows, and were made on quite a different 

 model to that adopted by most birds : they were entirely composed of 

 slender twigs, on some of which the leaves were still remaining ; but the 



