59* Note on the Blue or Common Heron (Ardea Cinerea), 



By LiEUT.-CoLONEL D. C. Phillqtt, Secretary, Board of Examiners. 



Vernacular names: in tlie Kapurthala State hutimar ; in 

 some parts of the Punjab nari^ a name that in Kapurthala 

 distinguishes the purple heron {ardea purpurea); in the Dera- 

 jat biLaJ- ; in Sindh chilam; in Kashmir brag; in tlie Bannun 

 District haveza; in the Kohat District chilang^ a nan»e some- 

 times there applied to storks as well; in Paracliinar, Kurram 



Valley, hukara ; in Hyderabad, Deccan, kabud (blue) ; iu Oudh 

 and the North- Western Provinces kabut^ anjan and bhadA 



In Persia the Common Heron is called *ttg^r, huqar^ mahi- 

 khur, and butimar. 



The weight of an old, large, bird hawked by me was 

 3 lbs. 8f oz. 



The heron is a permanent resident in India, breeding 

 throughout the country. Numbers, however, are migratory, 

 entering the Punjab in September-October and leaving . in 



February-March. In the Punjab, in these last two months, 

 large flocks migrate up the bii^ rivers. 



Large numbers of the Common-, Purple-, Night-heron, and 

 other water birds breed during tbe rains in the Cavalry grass- 

 rakfi at Paharpur, Dera Ismail Khan. Though the monsoon 

 does not extend to the Derajat, its effects are felt there to a 

 certfiin extent; the river rises and floods the rakh. 



In Kashmir the herons commence building early in spring, 

 nesting in the same tree, a lofty plane, as Night-Herons, 

 Egrets, and other birds. In one tree in a village I counted 

 thirty nests of the common heron alone, while a kite, some crows, 

 a few mainas, and several other birds built in the same tree. 

 Gilbert White, letter XXII, alludes to fonr-score nests being 

 in one tree, at Cressy Hall, near Spalding, in Lincolnshire. 



The young remain in the nest a Lmg time after they are 

 apparently full-grown. Fresh eggs and full-grown young are 

 fi-equently found in the same nest. The noise and fuss in a 

 heiony, during the breeding season, is considerable, and the old 

 birds often leave the trees and settle on the ground at a short 

 distance, to rest. The mutes, white and chalky like those of 

 hawks, are ejected by the young over the edge of the nest,* 



1 Bhad is prop**rly the Oudh name of the pnrf)le heron. This latter 

 is in Kapnrthala CJilIed nr/n, in Sialknt jdh; in Chhach-Hazara khfirhdr ; 

 and in Bannu chindakh-khurai or " frog-eater." In Persia it is named 

 jar da . 



2 There is consequently no affectionate sanitation as in the case of 

 starlings. How do owls keep their Hbodes clean ? Like starlings they 

 build in holes, but the mutes of the former do not admit of transportation. 



