56 THE LIVING ANIMALS OF THE WORLD 
there must be few who have not encountered it in a wild state at some time or another. In 
suitable spots it may occasionally be met with standing mid-leg in water on the look-out for 
eels and other fish and frogs, a diet varied by an occasional young bird or small mammal. 
Sometimes this prey is hunted, so to speak, the bird walking along with a slow, measured step, 
striking with lightning rapidity and wonderful precision the moment its victim is sighted, whilst 
at others it stands motionless, as when fishing, striking the instant the unsuspecting eel or 
flounder comes within range. 
Herons breed in more or less extensive colonies, the nests—somewhat bulky structures, 
made of sticks and lined with twigs—being placed in the tops of high trees. From four to 
six is the normal number of eggs, and these are of a beautiful sea-green colour. The young 
are thinly clad in long, hairy-looking down, and for some considerable time are quite helpless. 
Similar in appearance to the common heron is the American Great BLueE Heron, though 
it is by no means the largest of the herons, as its name might seem to imply. This distinc- 
tion belongs to the GottatH Heron. <A 
native of Africa, it is remarkable not only 
for its size, but for an extraordinary de- 
velopment of long, loose feathers hanging 
down from the lower part of the breast, 
and bearing a strange resemblance to an 
apron, concealing the upper part of the legs. 
Passing over many species, we pause 
to descant on the Ecrets. These are num- 
bered amongst the most unfortunate of 
birds, and this because of the gracefulness 
and beauty of certain parts of the plumage 
worn during the breeding-season, which are 
coveted alike by Eastern magnates and 
Western women. The feathers in question 
are those known as “egrets,” or, more com- 
monly, “ospreys”; and their collection, as 
Professor Newton points out, causes some 
of “the most abominable cruelty practised 
in the animal world.” Phote by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S, 
The CATTLE-EGRET, better known as BUFF-BACKED HERON 
the BUFF-BACKED HERon, breeds in the This bird habitually picks insects from the backs of cattle 
southern portion of the Spanish Peninsula, 
where from March to autumn it is very common in the marshes of Andalusia, thousands con- 
gregating there, herding with the cattle, from the backs of which they may be often seen pick- 
ing off the ticks; hence the Spaniards give them a name meaning “‘cattle-cleaners.” 
The Nicut-HERONs are comparatively small birds, and derive their name from their habit 
of turning night into day, waking up only as the shades of evening fall to hunt for food: 
only during the breeding-season is this habit broken through, when they are obliged to hunt 
for food for their young during the daytime. They breed in colonies, in bushes or low trees 
in the neighbourhood of swamps. In some places they are protected—as, for instance, round 
the Great Honam Temple at Canton, where these birds are held sacred. 
Colonel Swinhoe, says Mr. Howard Saunders, describes the nests “as placed thickly in 
some venerable banyans, the granite slabs that form the pavement beneath the trees being 
5 
bedaubed with the droppings of old and young, while from the nests arose the chattering cry 
of the callow broods, for which the parent birds were catering the whole day long, becoming 
s . . 2 So) 
more active at sunset. As darkness set in, the noise and hubbub from the trees rose to 2 
fearful pitch.” 
