near Kingsbridge, in Devonshire, in the latter end of
October, 1805, had been seen for several days in the same
field, attending some cows, and picking up insects, which
were found in its stomach. It was by no means shy, and
was fired at a second time before it was secured. The
situation where it was shot is the southern promontory of
Devon, very near the coast, between the Start and the
Prawl.” It was placed in Montagu’s collection by Mr.
Nicholas Luscombe, of Kingsbridge. The specimen, which
is a young bird, and proved on dissection to be a female, is
still [1884] preserved in the British Museum. The Author
learned from the Rev. Robert Holdsworth, that it was shot
by Mr. F. Cornish, at South Allington, in the parish of
Chivelstone.
In £ The Zoologist ’ for 1851 (p. 3116), there is a record
by Mr. A. Clevland, that he had obtained a very fine specimen
of the ‘ Little White Heron,’ which was shot in the
south of Devon in the month of April of that year, hut
no description or further particulars are given. Mr. H.
Stevenson included this species in £ The Birds of Norfolk ’
(ii. p. 151), on the authority of Mr. Joseph Clarke, who
informed him that a young bird killed at Martham, near
Yarmouth, in 1827, was in the Saffron Walden Museum;
but the specimen is no longer in existence, having been destroyed
by moth ; and as neither Mr. Stevenson nor Mr.
J. H. Gurney, jun., mention the Buff-backed Heron in their
recently published (1884) lists of Norfolk birds, it would
seem that its antecedents have not borne investigation.
The Buff-backed Heron is essentially a southern bird;
and Mr. W. E. Clarke records an adult male, shot on the
Obedska £bara,’ on the 29th of May, as the first known
occurrence in Hungary or her provinces (Ibis, 1884, p. 146).
On the Danube it appears to be almost unknown, and
although stated by Filippi to swarm on the Caspian, there
can be little doubt that he mistook for it the Squacco Heron
which has proved to be abundant there, but which he does
not mention (Ibis, 1884, p. 429). It is a very rare visitor
to the south of France, Italy, Sicily, Malta, and Greece;
and at present its only known breeding-haunts in Europe
are the southern portions of the Spanish Peninsula. There,
from March to autumn, this species is very common in the
marshes of Andalucia, where thousands may be seen amongst
the cattle, on the backs of which they may often be seen,
picking off ticks ; whence their name among the country-
people of Purga-bueyes,’ a corruption of £ Espulga-bueves,’
meaning £ cattle-cleaners.’ This Heron is said to have
occurred in Madeira. In North Africa, from Morocco to
Egypt, it appears to be abundant in suitable localities, and
it is to a great extent resident throughout the year ; its
distribution extending over that continent down to Cape
Colony. It is also common in Madagascar, Avhere Mr. E.
Newton thinks that its breeding-season is in September. In
Asia, its range is only known to reach to Palestine; for in
India, Ceylon, Burmah, South China, and South Japan, it
is replaced by a closely-allied species, Arclea coromanda,
which is rather larger, has a longer bill, narrower at the
base, the rufous portion of the breeding-dress is a rich
orange-colour and extends over the whole neck, and a large
part of the tibia is bare of feathers.
Like its congeners, the Buff-backed Heron breeds in
colonies, making a nest of dry sticks and twigs in the reeds
of swamps, or in trees : sometimes, according to Von Heuglin,
in gardens. Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., describes a colony of
about five hundred birds in the Faioum, which had their
nests in a large bed of dead tamarisks, about two to five feet
above the water. At the time of his visit—June—none of
the nests contained young, and many were in course of
building. The eggs were usually three in number, but in
one nest there were seven (£ Rambles of a Naturalist ’
p. 210). Their colour is a very pale blue—almost white—
the average measurements being P8 by P3 in.
The food of this species appears to consist of ticks (Acari)
obtained, as already stated, from the cattle ; beetles and
other insects which are turned up by the plough; frogs,
grasshoppers, and locusts. The note of the bird is likened
by Heuglin to the syllable grah.