BUFF-BACKED HEKON 23 



Adult female nuptial. Similar in plumage to the male. 



Adult winter, male and female. The dorsal and head- 

 plumes are absent. 



Immature, male and female. Feathers greyish-white in 

 colour and long plumes absent. 



BEAK. Black. 



FEET. Black, with yellow spots on the toes. 



IEIDES. Light pinkish-yellow. 



EGGS. Pale blue-green ; rather pointed at both ends : 

 clutch three to six. 



AVERAGE MEASUREMENTS. 



TOTAL LENGTH ... ... ... 21 in. 



WING 11-25 



BEAK ... ... ... ... 4 ,, 



TARSO-METATARSUS 3'75 ,, 



EGG ... 1-75 X 1'25 in. 



BUFF-BACKED HERON. Ardea bubulcus (Audouin). 



Coloured Figures. Gould, ' Birds of Great Britain,' vol. iv, pi. 

 24 ; Dresser, ' Birds of Europe,' vol. vi, pi. 400, fig. 1 ; 

 Lilford, ' Coloured Figures,' vol. xii, pi. 8. 



There is only one well-authenticated example of this 

 southern species on record, an immature female shot 

 towards the end of October, 1805, near Kingsbridge, in 

 Devonshire. (Montagu, Trans. Linn. Soc., vol. ix, p. 197.) 

 This bird is preserved in the Natural History Museum, 

 South Kensington. 



Mr. Harting, in his * Handbook of British Birds,' 1901, 



"plume" that surmounts or until lately surmounted the "busby" or 

 "bearskin," of our artillery, hussars, and certain select regiments of 

 foot." Here as an ornament "it verges on the ridiculous, all the grace 

 of the original being lost in the horsehair that counterfeits its form " 

 (Newton). Many thousands of Egrets have also been slaughtered to 

 supply the millinery market, and as the massacre takes place just prior 

 to the breeding- season, when the plumes are at their best, it is obvious 

 that if this wholesale trading continues the birds will speedily become 

 exterminated. It is to be hoped that a law for the protection of these 

 birds will be enacted and rigidly enforced, so that ' ospreys ' will not be 

 allowed into our markets for ornamental purposes, before the Little 

 Egret, like many other beautiful and interesting birds, becomes by the 

 cruel hand of man, but a thing of the past. 



