SQUACCO HERON. 489 



would have been impossible for us to have discovered this colony without 

 a guide. It took us four hours' rowing across country to reach it. As 

 far as we could see, from the bluffs which form the western boundary of 

 the steppes of the Dobrudscha, the country beyond was under water. 

 After crossing the main stream we entered a bed of rushes, and passing by 

 a colony of Black Terns, we rowed down a long wide lane with walls of 

 reeds on each side, and sprinkled all over with water-lilies in full-bloom, 

 the stalk of one we pulled up measuring eight feet. Then we crossed 

 meadows gay with the yellow flowers of the spurge, having occasionally to 

 get out of the boat to push it over a mud-bank. Crossing a large lake 

 where Swans floated amongst scattered reeds, arid a pair of Grey-lag Geese 

 were flying round as if we were near their nest, we entered a labyrinth of 

 willows and meadows, sometimes gliding with the current between rows 

 of willows, where the stream was too narrow to admit of the use of oars, 

 and where we had frequently to lie down in the boat to squeeze under the 

 branches of the trees. After crossing another main arm of the river our 

 guide pointed out to us a large forest of pollard willows about half a mile 

 square, in the centre of which he told us we should find the great Heron- 

 colony. We approached it across a lake thinly sprinkled over with reeds ; 

 now and then we could see a Little Egret ; and small parties of Cor- 

 morants and Ibises occasionally flew over the forest, but there were no 

 signs of our being near any great breeding-place. No one would ever 

 have suspected that the forest contained the treasures it did, nor would 

 any one who did not know every inch of the ground have been able to 

 find a way to it in a boat across country. The water was from five to 

 seven feet deep, so that wading was entirely out of the question. For- 

 tunately the trees were not very crowded, being planted, for the most part, 

 in groups, leaving paths wide enough for the boat in every direction. The 

 part occupied by the colony was near the centre of the forest, and con- 

 sisted of four or five hundred pollard willows, each of which contained 

 from five to twenty-five nests, belonging to five species of birds. The 

 place of honour in each tree was generally occupied by the large nest of a 

 Common Heron, whilst almost every available fork contained smaller nests 

 of the Little Egret and Night-Heron and, smallest of all, the nests of the 

 Pigmy Cormorant and the Squacco Heron. Before we penetrated the 

 centre of this great breeding-colony, which must have consisted of at least 

 five thousand nests, we found ourselves in the midst of a perfect babel of 

 birds. We had disturbed many hundred Herons from their nests, some of 

 which were flying round us in every direction, whilst others were perched 

 in the slender branches of the willows, the snowy white Little Egrets con- 

 trasting with the almost black Pigmy Cormorants. It was difficult to say 

 which looked most out of place as the branches bent beneath their weight. 

 Most of the birds, probably the males, flew round and round far above 



