408 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



Further explorations revealed seven more ; two of which, how- 

 ever, belonged to Ardea cinerea, the remainder to Ardea purpurea. 

 The nests of both species were identical in structure, and were 

 formed entirely of the dried stems of the surrounding reeds. 

 They were rather shallow, but very bulky ; one would have 

 perhaps filled an ordinary clothes-basket. The foundations of 

 the nests rested on broken-down reed-stems, and were on a level 

 with the water. Standing by the side of one I could just 

 comfortably get my chin over the rim of the nest. Those of A. 

 purpurea contained 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 5 eggs respectively ; but those of 

 the larger species, in one case, had young, perhaps a week or ten 

 days old ; and the other, three young and two unhatched eggs. 

 This was on the 11th of May. The eggs of A. purpurea in 

 several cases were quite fresh or nearly so, and in others incubated 

 for perhaps a week or thereabouts. Each nest stood in a little 

 clearing, due, as I surmised, to the materials having been gathered 

 by the parent birds close at hand. The Purple Heron appears 

 to be a close sitter, for on my invading the colony the owners 

 did not rise in a body, but got up singly as I approached the 

 nests ; though on one occasion when I blew a whistle to re-assure 

 an anxious companion on the bank, two rose very precipitately, 

 but without any cry betokening alarm. All flew off, indeed, 

 without any sound or protest, nor did I hear a single cry from 

 the flock of forty or more individuals, which my companion 

 counted, circling around some two hundred yards above the 

 mere. Some of the latter must have gathered from the sur- 

 rounding country, as I did not put up anything like this number 

 from amongst the reeds. 



In the part of France to which these notes refer the Purple 

 Heron is much commoner than its larger ally, and I estimated 

 that fully ninety per cent, of the Herons I observed were A. 

 purpurea. The latter species is readily distinguishable from A. 

 cinerea, even at a distance, by its smaller size and by its distinctly 

 reddish appearance, due in part to the rufous colour of the 

 scapulary plumes, and also to its chestnut under parts ; whilst 

 close at hand the black stripe down the sides of the neck in con- 

 trast with the clear grey neck of A. cinerea is very conspicuous. 



Most of our recognised authorities, — Dresser, Seebohm, 

 Yarrell, Saunders, &c, — in writing on the nesting habits of the 



