Descriptions of new species of Birds obtained near Calcutta. 175 



XXIII. — Descriptions of some new species of Birds found in the 

 neighbourhood of Calcutta. By Edward Blyth, Esq., Curator 

 to the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. 



To Richard Taylor, Esq. 

 Dear Sir, November 14tli, 1843. 



The Hiiidoostan steamer direct from Calcutta to Suez departs 

 tomorrow, by which opportunity I shall forward the present com- 

 munication. I have obtained several rare species of birds since 

 penning the first part of this paper*, but only one novelty, which 

 I proceed to describe. It is a gigantic species of true heron. 



Ardea nobilis, nobis. Length of a male in first plumage 50 

 inches by 7^ feet in alar expanse ; wing from bend 22|^ in. ; bill 

 to frontal plumes 7| in., and to gape 9f in. ; bare part of tibia 

 6^ in. ; tarsi 10 in. ; middle toe and claw 6^ in. ; hind toe and 

 claw 4 in. General form robust, but otherwise as in ^. cinerea, 

 which latter is a mere pygmy beside the new species, and the 

 dimensions given of this would probably be considerably exceeded 

 in a mature specimen. Colom- of the upper parts pure ashy, 

 somewhat darker than in A. cinerea ; all the wing-coverts tipped 

 with brown, denoting, with other indications, the immature dress : 

 crown, ear-coverts, nape, and hind-neck to near its base a fine 

 cinnamon rufous, deepest on the coronal feathers, which are elon- 

 gated, but contain no slender attenuated crest-plumes, as would 

 probably be the case in the adult ; nevertheless, a full massy crest 

 is formed by them, the longest feathers of which measure 4^ in. : 

 the frontal feathers immediately over the bill are dark ashy : 

 throat white ; front of the neck the same, variegated in the usual 

 manner of this genus with dark ashy, passing into nigrescent 

 about the angular bend of the neck : shoulder-tuft varied with 

 brown, having a white mesial streak on each feather : under parts 

 dull white, laterally margined with mingled brown and ashy. 

 Irides pale yellow. Beak blackish, the lower mandible dull white 

 except towards the tip and along the edge : cere dusky, the orbits 

 and a band in front of the eye yellowish : legs blackish : labial 

 feathers deeply stained with cinnamon-brown. This superb heron 

 was shot on the salt-water lake above Calcutta. It is probably the 

 largest of the genus, exceeding considerably, I think, an immense 

 and robustly formed African heron which I saw in the collection 

 of Dr. Andrew Smith. Possibly it may be the A. sumatrana of 

 Raffles, ' Lin. Trans.' xiii. 325, vaguely described as " a large sub- 

 crested heron, with long slender neck and bill (that of A. nobilis 

 is by no means long and slender), of a bluish gray, variegated 



* See our last Number, page 113. 



