r 
EASTERN GREY HERON. 
Immature, second year. Upper-parts lead-grey, including the hind-neck, back, wings, 
and tail ; fore-part of crown lead-grey with pale shaft-lines, becoming darker 
on the sides of the nape and nuchal crest ; ear-coverts pale ash-grey ; chin and 
throat white ; the dark hne on the fore-neck wider and greenish-brown in 
colour ; sides of the breast lead-grey Hke the sides of the body ; ornamental 
plumes not developed either on the scapulars, head, or fore-neck. Maxilla 
blackish ; feet lead-grey. 
It appears to take three years for this bird to attain its fuUy-adult plumage. 
Nest. “A flat platform of twigs without any lining” (Prjevalsky). 
Eggs. Clutch, four ; uniform light greenish-blue ; axis 55-57 mm., diameter 40-42. 
Breeding-season. April ? May (Siberia). 
“ Is tolerably abundant in Dalai-nor and in the Hoang-ho Valley, i.e. in 
localities where marshes can be found. It arrives in S.E. Mongolia towards 
the end of March, and about Gu-bey-key we noticed it even on the 3rd of 
March. We did not meet it at Koko-nor, but obtained a specimen in Kan-su 
about the middle of May. 
“It is common in Ussuri country, and arrives at Lake Hanka about the 
10th of March in small numbers, whilst the principal migration takes place 
in the end of this month ; all this time the birds keep together in flocks, 
sometimes in company with Herodias alba, Grus leucogeranus, or Ibises. 
“ They are extremely cautious, and choose for their nesting-places the 
small thick reedy islands of the river Lefa, which runs into Lake Hanka. 
Here the nests are very numerous, close to each other, all being built of the 
same shape and very carelessly. Some twigs, without any lining, form the 
whole structure, which is of a flat shape and not elevated beyond two or 
three feet above the water-mark. It is difficult to understand how the eggs 
do not get injured in these nests during a strong wind. 
“ I visited the above-described locality in the middle of June, when the 
young had partly left their nests, whilst the others were just at the point of 
doing so. 
“During the autumnal migration (i.e. in September and beginning of 
October) I met with many flocks of these birds on the coast of the Japanese 
Sea.”* 
“ It arrives about Pekin in the month of March and leaves again on the 
approach of winter, in small bands of twenty to thirty individuals.”! 
“The Grey Heron is distributed all along the Amur, especially in the 
wooded country along the lower course. Indeed, it has there large and 
undisturbed nesting-places and exceptionally good feeding-grounds in the 
wide river, which is so abundant in fish, and has countless shallow inlets and 
flat, marshy or sandy banks. During our journey along the river we saw 
* Prjevalsky, Rowley's Miscel., Vol. III., p. 48, 1878. 
t David, M6m. I'Acad. Imp. Sci. St. Petersb., Ser. VII., Vol. XXXIX. , p. 983, 1893. 
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