THE WADING BIRDS or NOMH CHINA. 145 



of the female is more brown, and is without the iridescence. The food 

 of this bird is small fish. 



Next in size comes the heron (.Ardea cinerea) familiar to everybody 

 who goes in for wild fowling. It is a beautiful bird with its delicate grey 

 feathers, white throat and neck, speckled with black and its graceful 

 black crest. In flight it may be distinguished from the foregoing species 

 by the way in which it holds its head back over its shoulders. The stork 

 keeps its neck stretched out at full length in front, as also do the cranes. 



Several other spec'es of heron occur in North China. The rarest of 

 these is the egret (Ardea garz^etta), a perfectly white bird, carrying on 

 its back those rare plumes commonly known as "ospreys." In size 

 this species is very much less than the common heron, but the two are 

 very similar in shape. As stated in a previous paper, this elegant little 

 wader is fast becoming extinct, owing to the high price set upon its 

 plumes. The worst thing about the collecting of these plumes is that 

 they are most valuable when the young are being fledged, and parent 

 birds are nearly always shot just at this time, so that the young are 

 left to starve. I have seen but two of these birds in a wild' state from 

 the time, many years ago, when I first began to distinguish one species 

 from another. 



A very beautiful bird is the purple heron {Ardea manillensis), whicii 

 may sometimes be seen in this region. The plumage of this bird is a 

 wonderful combination of greys, purples, buffs and browns. It is 

 somewhat smaller than the common heron. Common in the marshes 

 of North China is a very small bird belonging to this family named 

 lArdetta sinensis. It is like a small bittern in appearance, being 

 of a buff colour streaked with black. One often puts it up when 

 out snipe shooting. It occurs all over North- China. Another rarer 

 species, (A. eurythma) also occurs. This bird has the crown, nape and 

 back of a dark brown, the throat, cheeks, eliest, belly and legs of a 

 buff, with grey-buff wing coverts. I fo\md this bird rather common in 

 Manchuria. The well known bittern {Botnvrus stellaris) is the next 

 member of the great order Herodlones, to which the foregoing species 

 belong. This is essentially a bird of the marshes, where owing to its 

 colouring and markings, it may stand amongst the reed stems and 

 completely escape detection. 



Another member of this order is the night heron (Nycticorax 

 griseus). This bird is about the same size as the bittern, and is remark- 

 able for its conspicuous plumage. The top of the head is black with 

 two long white plumes passing backward over the neck and shoulders. 

 The face, side of the head, neck, breast and belly are white, the back 

 is black and the wings a dark blue-grey. The beak is green and black, 



s 19 



