THE NIGHT HERON 161 
is to be met with, where it establishes a colony, in 
quite large numbers, and, in the report I have 
frequently referred to on wild birds that visit 
the Giza Zoological Gardens, it is stated that 
“Night Herons begin to arrive during August, 
winter here, and leave during the spring months. 
A few individuals, however, are seen throughout 
the summer. The number of these birds, which 
spend the daytime in the gardens, has greatly 
increased during the last ten years. 108 were 
counted on January 15, 1900; 360 on December 
11, 1902. At present it is impossible to count 
them.” 
All day long it sits moped up, out of the direct. 
rays of the sun, in the centre of a mass of over- 
hanging foliage, and only wakes up when most 
other birds are just falling to sleep. It feeds on 
fish, frogs, and even water-beetles and insects. 
21 
