20 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



river's banks, and in fields, and is the White Egret so frequently pointed out b}' 

 dragomans as ' the Ibis.' " Although it has been often asserted that the true Ibis now 

 no longer inhabits lower Egypt, and is to be found only in Nubia, Abyssinia, or 

 the Soudan, it is, nevertheless, still pretty frequently met with in that region. Of 

 the Cattle-Egret it is, that this old legend is told, that every year, upon a certain 

 day, they all assemble — along with all the birds of the world — at Gebel-et-Tgr, one 

 of the hills guarding the entrance to the Nile Gorge, and " one after another," 

 according to Makrizi's description of Egypt, " each puts his beak into a cleft of 

 the hill until the cleft closes upon one of them ; and then, forthwith, all the 

 others fly away. But the bird which has been caught, struggles until he dies, and 

 there his body remains until it has fallen into dust." Maspero remarks that this 

 tale "faintly recalls that ancient tradition of the Cleft at Abydos, whereby souls 

 must pass, as human headed birds, in order to reach the other world." 



Family— ARDEID^. 



The Squacco Heron. 



Ardea raUoides, ScoP. 



THIS pretty, but rather pugnacious, little Heron, has been recorded from 

 various parts of England, on some twenty or thirty occasions; but only 

 twice or thrice from Scotland and Ireland. It has never been known to breed 

 with us, yet it has full right to a place among the number of those birds that 

 one may, at any time, have the good fortune to encounter at unexpected corners, 

 in this country, in the migratory season. Its visits, however, are very intermittent. 

 Dr. Sharpe, in his recent revision of this group, placed the Squacco Herons 

 in a genus, Ardeola, distinct from that of the Common Herons, Ardea. "The 

 Squacco Herons," he says, " form a small group of four or five species confined 



