THE PADDY-BIRD. 135 



picks ticks off pigs ! This pretty bird has considerably 

 advanced in shaking off heron traditions or sunk, as the 

 rest of the family may possibly say. Not only does he 

 live on ticks and grasshoppers instead of fish, but he walks 

 about a lot, and is sociable all the time, though this is 

 probably only accidental, and due to the fact that several 

 find one beast convenient both as a preserve and a beater for 

 game. Similarly one may see on the maidan tanks seve- 

 ral Paddy-birds standing about casually on the weeds and 

 mud, bub nothing is more obvious than that they have not 

 been introduced, and are not on speaking terms. The 

 Buff -backed Egret is not a Calcutta bird, but some other 

 of the Paddy-bird's relations are. I have seen the little 

 Cinnamon Bittern (Ardetta cinnamomea) wild in the Zoo, 

 and it has bred in the Botanic Gardens ; and the Blue 

 Bittern (Dupetor ftavicollis), which is dark slate with a 

 buff neck, bred wild in the Zoo, a year or two ago, and 

 probably does still. Then, of course, all habitues of that 

 exhibition know that the Night-Heron (Nycticorax griseus) 

 has for years invaded the Alipore Gardens and used the 

 islands in the middle of the tank for a combination of 

 dormitory and nursery, in large numbers too. 



So numerous, indeed, did they become, that they had 

 to be given notice to quit, so that the heronry is now a 

 thing of the past. The Night-Heron is much bigger than 

 the Paddy-bird, being larger than a crow, and is unusually 

 short-necked and thickset for a heron. The old one is 

 slate-grey and black, while the young are brown with 

 white spots, and look altogether different. Whether the 

 habit of going out at night is of great benefit to this bird 



