415 
Egg-collecting in Asia Minor. 
Soon after we reached the edge of the marsh we 
began to see many interesting birds : a pair of Black¬ 
winged Stilts ( Himantopus candidus), two pairs of Spur¬ 
winged Plovers ( Hoplopterus sphiosus), Great White Egrets 
(.Ardea alba), Little Egrets ( Ardea garzetta), Purple 
Herons ( Ardea purpurea ), Night-Herons ( Nycticorax 
griseus), Squacco Herons [Ardea ralloides), and Little 
Bitterns ( Ardetta minuta). A good many Ducks, too, were 
flying about, of species which I could not identify with any 
certainty, besides numbers of graceful swallow-like White¬ 
winged Black Terns [Hydrochelidon leucoptera). Among the 
hushes which here and there skirted the marsh flitted numbers 
of Grey-backed Warblers [Aedon familiaris), conspicuous 
from their ruddy brown tails, which when expanded showed 
the edging of black and white very plainly. These birds 
had, I fancy, only just arrived in Asia Minor from their 
winter haunts in Africa, and had not yet commenced to 
nest. 
When Mr. B. H- questioned our guides as to where 
the different species of Herons and Egrets nested, we found 
that they had no exact knowledge themselves, though 
they said they would be able to get precise information 
from some of the shepherds who were scattered over the 
plain near the marsh, tending herds of camels, horses, and 
cattle. One after another of these men was, however, 
cross-examined and found to be hopelessly ignorant of the 
actual breeding-sites of the birds the eggs of which we wished 
to take. Everyone professed to know that all the many sorts 
of birds we had seen nested somewhere in the reeds, but as 
the marsh before us was miles and miles in extent this 
general knowledge did not help us much. At last we came 
across a man who told us that he could show us nests and 
eggs in the reeds, and as he said he had taken 500 eggs 
only a few days before for food, we thought he must know the 
breeding-station of a Heron-colony. He told us that the 
water in the marsh was nowhere deep, and offered to take us 
on horseback to that part of it where he had lately collected 
numbers of eggs, if we would wait until he caught one of 
