MALAYAN ORNITHOLOGY. 195 



on small fishes. 



Herodias garzetta (Linn.). 



I frequently met with this Egret among the swamps in Singa- 

 pore, generally in flocks of from fifteen to thirty. 



My notes record : — 



"Singapore, 21st October, 1880. To-day, while shooting Snipe 

 in the swamp behind the barracks, I put up a party of twenty 

 white Egrets, and, as they passed overhead, brought down one of 

 them, a fine specimen of H. garzetta, in pure with plumage, but 

 of course, at this time of the year, without the crest and the 

 dorsal and pectoral plumes of the breeding-season. 



" In length it is 24 inches, bill at front 3J, tarsus 4 ; legs black, 

 blotched with green ; toes green ; soles yellow." 



Buphus coromandus (Bodd.). 



The Cattle-Egret is very plentiful throughout the Malay Pen- 

 insula ; the following are some of the many references to it in my 

 note-book : — ■ 



"Kuala Kangsa, Perak, 17th February, 1877. Buff-backed 

 Herons are very common here; wherever there are many buf- 

 faloes large flocks of them are always to be seen, either walking 

 about among the animals' legs, or else perched on their backs 

 picking out ticks and other vermin. This afternoon, close to 

 Kota Lama, I shot a female specimen: length 19 1 inches, beak 

 at front 2\, tarsus 3|; plumage white, with the exception of a 

 faint buff tinge on the head and nape ; irides yellow ; legs black ; 

 beak reddish yellow ; in short, the bird was in almost perfect non- 

 breeding plumage, though another, which I shot out of the same 

 flock shows traces of the buff back. Every evening at dusk a 

 large flock of these Egrets fly across the river and roost in a 

 clump of trees exactly opposite our camp." 



" Singapore, 4th November, 1880. Leaving Tanglin directly 

 after tiffin, I followed a jungle-path for a mile or two till it brought 

 me out on an open swamp, a branch of the Mount Echo valley 4 

 Quietly parting the bushes, I looked out into the open, and found 

 myself quite close to a large flock of Cattle-Egrets, which, un- 

 aware of my presence, were stalking about the swamp picking up 

 larvae and aquatic insects. After watching them for several 



