SIX MONTHS’ BIRD COLLECTING IN EGYPT. 209 
173. BUFF-BACKED HERON, Ardeola russata (Wagl.). 
(Hasselquist, 25); “Abu guirdan.” 
Is in some respects the most noticeable bird upon the 
Nile, though far commoner below Cairo than above it. I 
shot one in winter with a good buff plume, but that is 
very rare. Nine-tenths of what the traveller sees are as 
white as alabaster. When he beholds them perched like 
the purest of statuettes upon a gnarled old sycamore-fig, or 
peering out from among the leaves of the Nabuk, he needs 
no dragoman’s prompting to convince him that now indeed 
he has before him the veritable lois veligiosa. As in 
England the Crane has bequeathed its: name in certain 
parts to the Heron, and the Bustard to the Stone-Curlew, 
so the Buff-back has inherited that of the Sacred Ibis in 
Egypt. 
In the meadow land of the Delta they are very common, 
and I have sat sometimes watching them by the hour. 
Generally they will be in attendance on a herd of buffaloes, 
pecking gnats off their legs, or scrutinising their foot-prints, 
The cattle and their masters are so much indebted to them 
that they become very unwary. I have seen one almost 
driven over by a man who was ploughing with two oxen. I 
think they prefer the fields very much to the river, indeed I 
do not remember ever seeing them wading in the water like 
other Herons. In April we saw scarcely any except a few 
large flocks on migration. One of these was drawn up on 
the Nile banks. Another was on an uncovered sandbank 
with some Ruffs and Caspian Terns. Then for an interval 
we did not see any, but in May I again found a few ina 
field near Minieh. They fly slowly with the neck and head 
drawn in like a Little Egret. Ifthey come unexpectedly 
on aconcealed gunner, they stretch them out and uttera 
cry which is dissonant, but not so loud as an Egret’s, I 
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