of that month we fell in with a large flock, evidently
just arrived, in the great marshes of the Acheron,
near the little harbour of Phanari, in Epirus. Prom
that time I constantly noticed small parties of these
Herons about the coast of Epirus, and occasionally
in the island of Corfu, till about the middle of May,
when they disappeared from the coast, as I believe,
to breed in the marshes of the interior. I observed
large numbers of adult and young birds about the
southern end of the Lake of Scutari, in Albania, in
August of the year last mentioned. The migrating
birds appeared to keep entirely to the open marshes
during the daytime; indeed I do not remember to have
ever met with one in Epirus in any sort of covert, but
I believe that they retired to roost in the jungles of
willows and tamarisk that abound in that province.
In general habits this bird seemed to me to resemble
the Little Egret; but I subsequently found that in
Andalucia, where it breeds, it in some respects approximates
closely to the Bitterns. The Squacco Heron
generally nests in colonies, and builds a nest of twigs in
trees or low bushes in the marshes; but Canon Tristram
found nests, composed of great heaps of water-weed and
rushes, built amongst the reed-jungles of Lake Halloula,
in Algeria.
I have received a few eggs of this bird from Southern
Spain, with great numbers of those of the Buff-backed
and Night Herons. The eggs of the present species
are of a greenish blue, intermediate in tint between
those of the two species just named. I have reason to
believe that their average complement is four.
I have kept a few of these birds in captivity, two
or three through their first moult, but they are decidedly
the most delicate of the European Ardeidce in confinement,
with perhaps the exception of the Little Bittern.
My birds became fairly tame, but generally remained
singly under the shelter of bushes, from which they
occasionally stalked out to seize a frog or some other
dainty in the grass, or from their troughs of water.
The only note that I ever heard from the Squacco was a
harsh rattling croak.
This bird is more or less common throughout the
Mediterranean as a summer visitor. I found it to be
tolerably frequent in the marshes of Cyprus in April
and May.