MoVlTATES ZOOLOGICAE XXI. 1914. 285 



SO that it somewhat ajiproaehes P. calcus of Java, which differs widely from 

 ellioti in having the frontal shield more swollen and almost square. — E. H.] 



An egg was found on September 16. It is of a pale clay-colour with rufous 

 spots and underlying mauve ones, and measures 51"5 x 33"8 mm. 



9. Demig^retta sacra (Gm.). 



Anlea sacra Gmelin, Syst. Nal. i. 2, p. G40 (1789 — Tahiti ! ex Latham). 



2 Manus, 14. x. 1913. (No. 6200). 



This specimen is in the slate-coloured plumage, with a white line along the 

 middle of the throat. 



We cannot agree with Mr. Mathews' theory that the slate-colonred and tlie white 

 Reef-Herons are two different species, and that the pied specimens are hybrids 

 between the two — a theory which, besides, leads him to reject the name sacra in 

 favour of " matook " of Vieillot. At the very best, as the case is put by 

 Mr. Mathews, it would only be one theory pitted against another, which has 

 many more probabilities in its favour. But it is not even that, for he has, 

 apparently, overlooked two facts : first, that Dr. Heinroth has taken a white and 

 a grey young bird from the same nest, and secondly that Hijdranassa rufa in 

 America, Demigretta gularis of tropical Africa, D. asha of India, and " Florida 

 caerulca " of America present more or less the same phenomena. The fact that 

 hitherto only slate-colonred birds have been observed in New Zealand is, in our 

 opinion, not a proof of Mr. Mathews' theory ; we see no reason why in one isolated 

 country a dichromatic bird should not be found in one of its plumages only. 



The case of the two crows, Corvus comix and C. corone, to which our friend 

 refers, is an entirely different one, because in that case two species inhabit strictly 

 limited areas, and interbreed only where they meet, along the boundaries of their 

 countries. Moreover, we would venture to think that the two birds would most 

 likely not only differ in their grey and albino-like white colour (the latter the 

 normal and sole colour of many species of herons !) if they lived together as two 

 distinct species. 



10. Nycticorax caledonicus caledonicus (Gm.). (?) 



Ardea caledonim Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. 2, p. 626 (1789 — " Habitat in Nova Caledonia." Ex Latham, 

 Si/n. in. 1, p. 55, where a description from Forster's MS. is given). 



1 (? ad. (No. 6161), 1 c? med. (No. 6214), c? ? juv. (Nos. C200, 6210), Mauus, 

 September and October 1913. Wing of adult male 294 mm. 



" Iris dark yellow ; bill entirely black ; feet dull yellow." 



The adult male has the sujierciliary line pale rufescent and the tip ;of the long 

 nuchal plumes black ; the latter character does not hold good from an examination 

 of other skins from the Admiralty Islands in the British Museum, and the 

 rufescent eyebrow is also found in Australian birds, though it is generally more 

 whitish in the latter. The upperside of the Manus bird is rather rich and dark, 

 but that is no sufficient reason to separate it from the Australian form, as no 

 series of the Admiralty form is available. If ever such a series should come to 

 hand it might be possible to separate them, though this is very doubtful. 



Mr. Mathews {B. Aiistr. iii. p. 459) calls the Australian Night-Heron 

 " Nycticorax caledonicus fiil/i," without explaining why he considers it to be 



