NIGHT-HERON. 501 



of the embryos in the other six eggs confirmed this idea. I should say the 

 differences between them could not have been more than six dajs, and 

 certainly not less than three ; so that the Night-Heron must commence 

 sitting on the first egg laid, and while engaged in its incubation^ keep on 

 laying, at fixed intervals, the other two, which form the complement. . . . 

 Besides the colony of Night-Herons at Honamj there is another at the 

 Old Man^s Home, where a large pond is enclosed by a hedge of tall bushes 

 and shrubs, and beyond this is a high wall all round. Among these bushes 

 the Night-Herons muster in countless numbers, placing their nests on 

 every suitable branchy though often only a few feet from the ground. 

 They are held sacred by the priests in the adjoining temple, and no one is 

 allowed to kill or disturb them.^' 



The eggs of the Night-Heron, from three to five in number^ are bluish 

 green in colour. They vary in length from 3"18 to TS inch, and in 

 breadth from 1"5 to 1"3 inch. Some specimens are slightly paler than 

 others. It is impossible to distinguish small eggs of this species from 

 large examples of those of the Little Egret ; but on an average the eggs 

 of the Night-Heron are larger. The eggs of the Buff-backed Heron, 

 although similar in size^ are distinguished by their much paler colour. 

 The Night- Heron only rears one brood in the year; but if its first eggs 

 are destroyed others are deposited, and the same nesting-place is used year 

 after year. 



The general colour of the plumage of the adult Night-Heron is lavender- 

 grey; the crown and nape, upper back, and scapulars are dark brown 

 glossed with metallic green ; several long, white, cylindrical feathers form 

 a crest on the nape ; the forehead, eye-stripe, and the whole of the under- 

 parts are pure white. Bill black ; legs and feet yellow, suffused with orange 

 on the back of the tibial joint; claws black; irides Indian red; lores and 

 a bare space round the eye dark slate-grey. The female scarcely differs in 

 colour from the male, and the winter plumage does not differ from that of 

 summer. Young in first plumage have the general colour of the upper 

 parts brown, shading into lavender-grey on the wings and tail ; the feathers 

 of the head have nearly white shaft-lines, which broaden into white tips on 

 the back ; and all the wing and tail-feathers have white tips. All the 

 feathers on the underparts, except the under tail-coverts, are brown, with 

 broad white . shaft- lines. In birds of the year the white shaft-lines and 

 tips have disappeared from the upper parts except on the wing-coverts and 

 primaries, and the underparts are white, more or less suffused with brown 

 on the flanks and the sides of the neck. 



