BUFF-BACKED HERON 
Ardeola russata 
General plumage white, delicately tinged with buff on head, 
nape, crop, and back; beak and bare skin round eye, 
yellow; eye, light yellow; legs, olive-black. Total length, 
20:5 inches. 
Tuis is the bird that is most often called the Egret, 
and it is very similar, as in its winter plumage it is 
practically white all over—just a line of buff on 
the crown. It is of the greatest service to the 
cattle when feeding or resting, as it seems to know 
no fear, and settles on their backs, one or two at a 
time, and diligently searches for flies and ticks and 
all those parasitic things that infest the poor brutes. 
I have seen them walk right up to one of the 
recumbent buffaloes, and go solemnly picking 
things off it all the way round its face, even off its 
eyes, whilst the creature never ceased chewing the 
cud, and one saw its jaw going solemnly round and 
round whilst the bird did its best to free it from 
the pests. What Egypt would be without all 
these birds, who are ceaselessly at work clearing the 
air of insect life, it is appalling to contemplate, for 
with them the clouds of flies, midges, mosquitoes 
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