THE ZOOLOGIST 



No. 786.— December. 1906. 



THE GEEAT WHITE HERON (ARDEA ALBA). 



By R. B. Lodge. 



(Plate VI.) 



After finding the Pelicans' nesting colony in Albania (cf. ante, 

 p. 365), my next task was to find Arclea alba. And here there was 

 some little difficulty to start with, for the month's search for Pele- 

 canus crispus had brought me well into May, and it was doubtful 

 if I should be in time for eggs. But the authorities differed so 

 much that I really knew very little about the proper time for the 

 nesting season. Seebohm says that they nest from mid-May to 

 June, while Howard Saunders mentions a nest (found in 1863) in 

 an old fir-tree which contained young birds recently hatched on 

 •Tune 28th ; while others say that they nest earlier in the year 

 in the reeds. 



The first place to be searched was a large Albanian lake, 

 where the birds certainly were to be seen plentifully, but all my 

 efforts to discover a nesting colony were fruitless. In vain we 

 struggled through submerged forests, and made distant expedi- 

 tions to the further end of the lake of some days' duration. 

 The information received in answer to inquiries was, as usual, 

 utterly untrustworthy, and many days were wasted in going to 

 see nests of the White Stork, Grey Heron, and even the Hooded 

 Crow. The people in these countries appear to be quite in- 

 capable of distinguishing one bird from another, and the know- 

 Zool. 4th Her. vol. X., December, 1906. 2 M 



