BUBULCUS COEOMANDUS. 
1149 
its stomach 60 whole grasshoppers and other orthopterous insects, besides which there was an equal bulk of 
some digested heads and legs, so that this bird had breakfasted on about 120 grasshoppers/’ I have on more 
than one occasion seen this Egret picking ticks from the legs of cattle ; but I have not observed it doing so 
when standing on their backs, as Crows commonly do ; and this latter position seems to be one of rest merely. 
It is an extremely silent bird as a rule ; but during the breeding-season it becomes noisy, and constantly 
utters its cry ( quak ) , which is perhaps peculiar to it when nesting. 
Nulification . — Layard found this Egret breeding with the larger species in May at a tank near Tangalle. 
The nests are commenced or renewed about the beginning of April, and probably earlier in localities where 
these large colonies commence at the beginning of the year to breed. At the several heronries which I have 
visited I have not had the good fortune to find the Cattle-Egret nesting, and I rather incline to the opinion 
that it nests by itself as a rule. The nests are built on trees in the water, and are platforms of sticks 
lined with a few roots or creeper-tendrils. The eggs are four or five in number, and are, says Mr. Hume, to 
be distinguished from those of all other Herons by their very pale colour, being white, with a faint green 
tinge. They are broad ovals in shape. In length they vary from 1'6 to l - 85 inch, and in breadth from 1'22 
to 1-4. 
The breeding- season in North India lasts from June until August; but in Southern India it is in 
November and December. 
Genus AEDEOLA. 
Bill stout at the base, much pointed, the gonys pronounced, commissure nearly straight. 
Wing with the 1st quill almost equal to the 2nd, which is the longest. Tail very short. Legs 
short ; tibia feathered more than in the preceding groups. Tarsal scales narrow and rectangular. 
Middle toe slightly shorter than the tarsus ; inner toe slightly shorter than the outer ; hind toe 
stout. 
Plumage of the neck elongated ; head crested and dorsal plumes decomposed and elongated 
in the breeding-season, also a marked difference in the plumage at that time. 
