210 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 
never saw an Egret consorting with them, though I have 
occasionally seen the two species flying side by side. The 
Buff-back is the smaller bird, and may always be told at a 
distance by the shape and colour of his bill. 
One of the most interesting sights at the Faioum was a 
breeding place of these birds—at that time (June)—in the 
most luxuriant plumage. A colony of, I should say, five 
hundred of them, had chosen a large bed of dead tamarisks 
for their breeding place. None had young, and a good 
many had not yet completed the process of building. 
Three was the commonest number in those nests which had 
eggs, but in one I counted seven. They stand from two to 
five feet above water-mark, and are made of branches snapped 
off dead tamarisks hard by, or picked up on the shore. 
One only had mud in its composition. Several were lined 
with a few reeds. They are not very large, the diameter 
being about a foot. Many of the old birds were carrying 
sticks about, which at a distance gave them the appearance 
of very long-beaked birds; albeit, all I saw near were carry- 
ing them crossways. At sunrise troops of them might be 
seen going south to forage in the fields as far as Medinet, or 
further; yet at nine o’clock they are not all off their eggs, 
and a visitor at eleven would find 100 or 200 which have 
already returned, or are perhaps staying there to keep 
guard and watch against other birds which might be tempted 
to steal from the nests. In the evening again it was very 
amusing to watch them like Rooks going home laden with 
locusts and beetles which they had caught in the fields 
of young sugar-cane and doura-corn, some following the 
sinuosities of the shore, some flying along the Bar El Wady 
canal (with the Cormorants and an occasional Egret), 
some passing straight over the tents, their white forms 
stand out clearly against the still blue water, all are 
bound for the same haven, a few, earlier than the rest, 
have their beaks open as if panting from the heat. 
