The Horse Egret
There are two white horses together with their attendants at Lago di Alviano.
![Horse and Cattle Egret - Lago di Alviano - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Lago-di-Alviano-The-Hall-of-Einar-2631-725x408.jpg)
This is a Cattle Egret, Bubulcus ibis, riding a white horse. No, I don’t mean that it’s high on cocaine. I mean it’s literally riding a white horse.
![Horse and Cattle Egret - Lago di Alviano - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Lago-di-Alviano-The-Hall-of-Einar-2625-725x725.jpg)
It’s a Horse Egret, then, isn’t it?
![Horse and Cattle Egret - Lago di Alviano - The Hall of Einar - photograph (c) David Bailey (not the)](https://www.thehallofeinar.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Lago-di-Alviano-The-Hall-of-Einar-2594-725x483.jpg)
I see one of the Horse Egrets catch and swallow a large frog. It stops being a sentinel angel for a moment and dismounts from its steed, flaps into the undergrowth and takes the frog whole. It must be great to have the animal equivalent of a grouse beater on hand.