( 181 ) 

 Genus HERODIAS Boie. 



Herodias, Boie in Isis, 1882, p. 559. 



Nearly cosmopolitan. 



1. Herodias egretta (Gm.) 



Ardea egntia, Gmelin, S'jst. Nat. I. p. 629 (1788). 



Herodias egretla, Sharpe, Cut. B. Brit. Mas. XXVI. p. 95 ; Ridgway in Proc. C.S. Wat. .Mu-i. XIX. 

 p. 601. 



Dr. Baur Las found ou Albemarle " a rookery of a white heron (the adults 

 fully white "). 



We have received a beautiful adult male from Albemarle Island. It does not 

 differ from South American examjdes, the wing being 410 ram. long, but it seems 

 to us that North American birds have the wing generally about 20 to 30 mm. shorter. 

 The long-winged South American birds probably form a distinct subspecies. 



Genus BUTORIDES Blytb. 



Butomles, Blyth, Cat. B. Aswt. Soc. p. 281 (1849). 



Distributed over America, Africa, and Madagascar, temperate and trojiical 

 portions of Asia to Australia. Absent from Europe. 



1. Butorides plumbeus (Sund.). 



Ardea plumbea, Sundevall in Proc. Zool. Soc. Loud. 1871, pp. 125, 127. 



Butorides jilumbevs, Sa-lvin in Tram. Zool. Sue. Lond. IX. p. 497 (187G) ; Ridgway in Pmc. CS- 



Nat. Mus. XIX. p. 603. 

 B. HiindecalU, Reichenow in Jouni. f. Orn. 1877. p. 253 ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. .Muf. XXVI. p. 185. 



(There is no reason to reject the specific name pi urn In a, the .Irdea pUnnhea of Merrem being a 



bird belonging to a totally different genus, and we do not accept the illogical rule " Once a 



synonym, always a synonym.") 



The Butorides of the Galapagos Islands is easily distinguished from all the 

 other species of the genus by its very much darker underside, darker neck without, 

 or with ouly indications of rufous, but with very distinct black longitudinal patches. 

 Further by their darker wings, which have no white edges to the inner primaries, 

 and by the very narrow and deep rufous brown, instead of buif or rusty wide, edges 

 to the wing-coverts. B. plumbctis is also stouter built and larger than its American 

 relations. 



We have received specimens from Chatham, Bindloe, Jervis, Hood, Inde- 

 fatigable, Wenman, Abingdon, Albemarle, and Barrington Islands. Ridgway 

 mentions also Duncan, Charles, and James Islands. Dr. Baur observed it on Tower 

 Island. One specimen, killed on board ship at Barrington Island on October 7th 

 (No. 1548), had the " Iris bright orange-red, legs redder than orange red, bare skin 

 ou lores bluish.' 



Genus NYCTANASSA Stejn. 



Kycthtrodim, Keichenbach, Syst. Ac. 1852, p. XVI. (non Mycterodius Macgilliviay 1842.) 

 Nyctaiiassa, Stejneger in Proc. C/S. Nut. Mus. X. p. 295 (1887). 



Warmer portions of America. 



13 



