The Living Animals of the World, Volume II: Birds, Reptiles and Amphibians, Fishes, Jointed Animals, Molluscs, etc.

Storks, Herons, and Pelican Tribe 441

of grass, etc., are always floating about the muddy water when a herd has been feeding. Their cry is almost indistinguishable from the gaggling of geese, and they fly in the same catenarian formations." The SPOONBILLS and IBISES also belong to the Stork Tribe. The former are remarkable : one species, a few hundred years ago, nested in chiefly for the strange spoon-shaped bill England. This remarkable beak is associated with a peculiar method of feeding, well described by the late Mr. Wolley. During the operation, he says, " the beak was passed sideways its grasp; but the through the water, and kept open till something palatable came within its action by which the bird effected this was most singular; for instead of turning only head and neck, it turned its whole body from left to right and from right to left, like the balance-wheel of a watch; its neck stretched out and its beak immersed perpendicularly : this semicircular action was kept up with great vigour and at to about half its depth a tolerably quick march." A graphic description by Mr. Alfred Crowley ot a visit to the breeding-haunts of the

Photo ly W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] [Regent's Park. Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] [Regent's Park.

SPOONBILL. SACKED IBIS.

So called on account of its spoon-shaped bill. Sacred to the ancient Egyptians, it is known to the Abyssinians to-day as " Father John."

:spoonbill, about fifteen miles from Amsterdam, in 1884, is well worth reproducing here "Taking a small boat in tow, we were punted across the open water, over which were flying numbers fullof sand-martins, swifts, common and black terns, and black-headed gulls, the reeds being of coots, moorhens, sedge- and reed-warblers, etc., and in the distance we saw, rising above the reeds occasionally, a small spoonbill or purple heron. On nearing a large mass of reeds, one of the boatmen struck the side of the punt with the pole, when up rose some fifty spoonbills and eight or ten purple herons; and as we came closer to the reeds there were soon hovering over our heads, within easy shot, some 200 of the former, and fifty or sixty of the latter. Strange to say, not a note or sound escaped from the spoonbills, and only a few croaks from the herons. On reaching the reeds, we moored our punt, and two of the men, wading in the mud, took us in the small boat about fifty yards through the reeds, where we found ourselves surrounded by spoonbills' nests. They were placed on the mud among the reeds, built about 1 foot or 18 inches high and 2 feet in diameter at the bottom, tapering to 1 foot at the top, where there was a slight depression, in which lay four eggs, or in most cases four young birds, many ready to leave the nest, and several ran off as we 56

of the World442 The Living Animals

approached. In the nests with young there was a great difference in age and size, one being about a day or so old, and the oldest nearly ready to leave the nest some two or three weeks old so that evidently the birds lay their four eggs at considerable intervals, and begin to sit on depositing the first. After wandering about, a matter of difficulty on account of the mud, we found a clutch of only three eggs, and one of four, which I managed to blow. We also obtained two clutches of eggs of the purple heron, but some of the latter had young." The IBISES, though much alike in form, are strangely diverse in colour. One species was sacred to

Photo ly J. T. Newman] the ancient Egyptians. The rever-

YOUNG HERONS FOURTEEN DAYS OLD IN NEST. ence and affection they showed to Photographed in the top of a pine-tree 60 feet from the ground, in Lord Clarendon's this bird, above all others, is prob- Park. ably largely due to its migrating habits, which obtained in that far past just as they do to-day. The naturalist Brehm says on this subject: " When the Nile, after being at its lowest ebb, rose again, and the water assumed a red tinge, then the ibis appeared in the land of the Pharaohs as a sure guarantee that the stream the giver and preserver of life, which the people in their profound reverence raised to the rank of a god would once again empty the well-spring of plenty over the thirsty land. The servant and messenger of an all-bounteous Deity commanded of a necessity : he tooa reverence of a poetic and distinguished character, by reason of its importance must be a god." Another species, the GLOSSY IBIS, occurs sometimes in Britain. Perhaps the most beautiful of all is the SCARLET IBIS of America, numbers of which can be seen in the Zoological Grardens of London. On account of the curved, sickle-shaped bill the Ibises were at one time believed to be related to the Curlews: this, however, is now known to be quite incorrect.

It was at one time believed that " the ibis [was] adopted as a part of the arms of the town of Liverpool. This bird is termed a Liver, from which that flourishing town derived its name, and is now standing on the spot where the Pool was, on the verge of which the Liver was killed." The arms of the town of Liverpool, however, as Mr. Howard Saunders points out, are "comparatively modern, and seem to have no reference to the ibis. The bird which was adopted in the arms of the [extinct] Earls of Liverpool was described in a former edition of 1 Burke's Peerage ' as a cormorant, holding in the beak a branch of seaweed. In the Plantagenet seal of Liverpool, which is believed to be of the time of King John, the bird has the appearance of a dove, bearing in its bill a sprig of olive, apparently intended to refer to the advantages that commerce would derive from peace."

The glossy ibis has been found breeding in colonies of thousands in Slavonia. The nests are large structures formed of sticks and a few weeds, never far from the water, and many even, in the colony referred to, were so near the surface that they appeared to be floating. stillThe eggs, three or four in number, are of a beautiful greenish blue. The young, while unable to fly, climb actively among the branches of the trees in which the nest is placed, clinging so firmly with the feet as to be removed with difficulty.

; i By permission of Professor Bumpus] [New York.

GREAT BLUE HERON.

This bird ranges from the Arctic regions to the West Indies and South America 443

THE HERONS AND BITTERNS.

In the first mentioned of these two groups the COMMON HERON is the best known in the

British Islands. Indeed, there must be few who have not encountered it in a wild state at some time or another. In suitable spots it may occasionally be met with standing mid-leg in water on the look-out for eels and other fish and frogs, a diet varied by an occasional young bird is hunted, or small mammal. Sometimes this prey so to speak, the bird walking along with a slow, measured step, striking with lightning rapidity its victim is and wonderful precision the moment sighted, whilst at others it stands motionless, as when fishing, striking the instant the unsuspecting eel or flounder comes within range. From the earliest times until the reign of William IV. the heron was specially protected by

Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S.] [Regent's Park.

COMMON NIGHT-HERON.

This bird occasionally visits the British Islands.

law, being held in high regard both as an object of sport and a desirable addition to th dinner-table. So late as James I.'s time an Act was passed making it illegal to shoot with any gun within 600 paces of a heronry. The favourite way of taking the heron was by hawking, a sport which has furnished material in abundance both for poet and painter. Herons breed in more or less extensive colonies, the nests somewhat bulky structures, made of sticks and lined with twigs being placed sixin the tops of high trees. From four to is the normal number of eggs, and these are of a beautiful sea-green colour. The young are thinly clad in long, hairy-looking down, and for some considerable time are quite helpless. Similar in appearance to the common heron is the American GREAT BLUE HERON, though it is by no means the largest of the herons, as its name might seem to imply. This distinction native of belongs to the GOLIATH HERON. A for its size, Africa, k is remarkable not only but for an extraordinary development of long, loose feathers hanging down from the lower parb of the breast, and bearing a strange resemblance by Scholastic Photo. Co.} [Parson's Green. to an apron, concealing the upper part of the legs. Photo Passing over many species, we pause to YOUNG COMMON HERONS. their full plumage. descant on the EGRETS. These are numbered These birds have not yet acquired

Storks, Herons, and Pelican Tribe 445

amongst the most unfortunate of birds, and this because of the gracefulness and beauty of certain parts of the plumage worn during the breeding-season, which are coveted alike by Eastern magnates and Western women. The feathers in question are those known as "egrets," or, more commonly, "ospreys"; and their collection, as Professor Newton points oat, causes some of "the most abominable cruelty practised in the animal world." The wearing of these feathers can no longer be excused; for Sir William Flower in England, and Professor W. E. D. Scott in America, have given the greatest publicity to the horrible barbarities and sickening scenes which are perpetrated by the men sent to gather in this harvest. The egrets, however, are not the only victims, as a glance at the milliners' windows will show, the distorted and mangled bodies of almost every known species of the smaller

[ Washington. Photo by Dr. R. W. Slmfeldf] GREEN HERON. This is a North American bird of skulking and nocturnal habits.

! offend unwittingly; Many of those who wear these " ornaments " birds being therein displayed it is certain that if they realised the suffering and waste of life that this method of decoration entails they would eschew any but ostrich feathers for ever.

The CATTLE-EGRET, better known as the BUFF-BACKED HERON, breeds in the southern portion of the Spanish Peninsula, where from March to autumn it is very common in the marshes of Andalusia, thousands congregating there, herding with the cattle, from the backs of ; hence the Spaniards give them a name which they may be often seen picking off the ticks meaning "cattle-cleaners."