Birds. 



8809 



which is of a pale duck's-egg colour, 163 inches long and 1'25 broad. 

 The young are more like the adult than is usually the case among the 

 lesser herons. 



160. Ardeola prasinosceles, Swinhoe, Ibis, 1860, p. 64. Our Ar- 

 deola is a constant resident in South China and Formosa, frequenting 

 wet paddy-fields during the day, where they feed on grasshoppers and 

 almost anything they can catch, and roosting at night on the banyan 

 and other large trees. They are called Tsan-la, or rice-field herons, 

 by the Chinese, and paddy-birds by Europeans. They may often be 

 seen together in the same field, as they are a common species, but they 

 neither associate in flocks nor breed in company. Their wicker nests 

 are usually placed on the high branches of banyan trees ; and their 

 eggs, seldom exceeding three in number, are bluish white and rather 

 large. The young birds are splashed with dusky on the wings, but 

 they are otherwise very similar to the adult in winter dress. In Sep- 

 tember the summer plumage begins to fall away, and is replaced by 

 the winter feathers, in which latter dress, as has been before remarked, 

 the several species of the genus are almost undistinguishable from one 

 another. In April the complete nuptial dress is again assumed. 



161. Ardetta flavicollis, Lath. 



162. A. cinnamomea, Gmel. 



163. A. sinensis, Gmel. 



164. Nycticorax griseus, L. In summer, when the young require 

 incessant feeding, it is not unusual to meet the night heron abroad 

 during the day, searching for food ; but at other seasons it is strictly 

 a night bird, roosting in daylight in company, among osiers or bam- 

 boos, on the banks of inland waters, and rambling about in the twilight 

 and darkness of night in search of food. In the darkest nights their 

 loud " kwa" may be heard as the birds are winging their way over- 

 head. The Chinese call them Am-kong cheow, or bird of darkness, 

 and look upon them with superstitious dread. They are thought to 

 have some connexion with evil spirits ; and as it is the Chinese cus- 

 tom to propitiate the evil demons, that they may not play any of their 

 mad pranks on humanity, so they give protection to these their birds. 

 In large cities superstition is laughed down, and not so prevalent; we 

 therefore, in the Formosan capital, were not thought to commit any 

 great sin in disturbing the ill-hallowed bird ; but among the country 

 people at Tamsuy, the villagers for miles round would flock to us 

 when we were out with guns, and beg us not to disturb a colony of 

 night herons that had commenced nesting operations in a fine 



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