ABDETTA. 253 



he said it was quite another bird which flew from the nest, being 

 entirely of a light reddish colour. 



" The next day I went to the place, which was a pond of about 

 an acre in extent, covered with tall reeds, and with a patch of 

 open water about twenty yards square. After beatiug the reeds 

 in the vicinity of the nest one of these red birds came oat, but out 

 of shot from the place where I stood. 



" This I at once saw was no Gallinula, for it flew to a tali 

 castor-oil plant growing at the side of a sugar-cane field and 

 perched on the top of it. I endeavoured to get within shot, but 

 it was too wary and flew away to a distance. The other bird came 

 out on the opposite side of the pond and flew away a hundred 

 yards or so and returned to the pond. I again had the reeds 

 beaten after I had gone to the other side of the pond, and this 

 time the bird came out past me, a long -l.S-yards shot for No. 8 

 shot, but I managed to secure it. It was, as I expected- from the 

 egg, a Little Heron or Bittern, Ardea cinnamomea. 



" I observed that the nest of this bird was built about 2 feet 

 above the water-level on some reeds which had been bent down 

 for the purpose. The nest was composed of water-grass and 

 lined with coarse grass. The eggs were pure white with, when 

 fresh taken, a very faint tinge of blue. In shape they were a 

 perfect oval. 



" On the 4th September among some patches of reed on 

 Jheenjuck Jheel, I again put up an Ardea cinnamomea, which I 

 unfortunately shot. The nest was close by and contained only one 

 fresh egg. The bird was the male, and the female flew off. The 

 nest was, as before described, a platform of grass among the reeds, 

 and placed on a few which were bent down. It was about 2 feet 

 from the water surface and about 9 inches in diameter. It was 

 quite flat without any central depression. The egg in colour and 

 form resembled those formerly taken, but it is rather larger." 



Mr. Scrope Doig, writing from the Eastern Narra in Sind, 

 informs us that he " found a nest of this species on the 3rd August 

 in a thick clump of reeds in the middle of a swamp ; it contained 

 four fresh eggs. The nest was a platform of coarse grass and 

 reed.'' 



Colonel Butler notes from Belgaum : — " 20th July. Eound a 

 Chestnut Bittern's nest containing four slightly incubated eggs. 

 The nest, which consisted of a tolerably substantial pad of short 

 pieces of coarse, damp sedge lined with small pieces of dry grass, 

 was built upon a small plot of rising ground in the middle of an 

 inundated corn-field. The island was overgrown with grass, 2 or 

 3 feet high, and weeds, and the nest was built in the grass about a 

 foot from the ground, and some 9 or 10 feet from the water's edge. 

 I visited the spot upon two different occasions and both times the 

 hen bird was sitting and the cock bird was skulking in the grass 

 close by. The eggs were very dirty, being covered all over with 

 mud from the bird's feet and stains from the damp materials of 

 which the nest was composed, and it took a considerable amount 



