MKSOPHOTX. 19 



Order HERODIONES. 



Family ARDEID^. 



o-envis nycESOFHO'S'ZJs:, sharp,-. 



Mesophoyx plumifera. 



PH'MED EGRET. 



Jlcrodms phuuifertis, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1S47, p. 221 ; i«/., i!ds. Austr., fol. Vol. VI., pi. .57 

 (1848). 



JIirodiaK rc/re/toi(l''!i (nee Gmplin), Gould, llaiidbk. Hds. Austr., Vol. II., p. 30.3 (1865). 

 2/es'ij//ini/.r p/umi/'-ra, Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXVI., p. S7 (1898) ; uL, Hand-l. Bd.s., 

 Vol. I., p. 195 (1899) ; North, Alistr. Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.VV., p. ii., 27tli Sept., 1907. 

 Adult ,m.\le, in breeding plumage. — Above and beJvw pure iv/tit,; including a large train of 

 dorsal plumes extending far beyond the end if the tail, and a similar but shorter bimch of plumes of 

 th'' same eharaeter dependent from the loiver end of the fore-neck ; " bill and orbits ijellouj ; feet and 

 loiver part of tarsi black : upper part of tarsi inclining to flesh colour" (Gould). Total length in the 

 flesh 24-5 inches, winy 11:5, tail 4-6, bill o-:.'5, tarsus I^-l, some of the longest dorsal plumes H, 

 extending beijond llir end of the tail 0, some of the loyigest disintegrated plumes on the lower portion 

 of the foreneek S. 



Adult frmale. — Similar in plumage to the male, hat sligJitly soudler. 



Distribution.— NoTth-\vest.ern Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia, Queensland, 

 New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia. 



(^t LTHOUGH so generally distributed in favourable situations over the greater portion of 

 -^ ^ the .\ustralian continent, the Plumed Egret is by no means so common as its geographical 

 distribution would lead one to imagine. Gould originally described this species in the 

 " Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London," from a specimen obtained in New South 

 Wales. It is difficult sometimes to find a suitable vernacular name for species, and this is so in 

 the present instance, for all three species of White Egret inhabiting Australia are also Plumed 

 Egrets in the breeding season, but the ornamental plumes are lost in the autumn and winter 

 months. Comparatively they could be vernacularly distinguished as the Great White Egret 

 (Hii'iidiiis timoricnsis), the Lesser White Egret (Mesophoyx plumifera), and the Small White 

 Egret (Gavzetta nigripcs), although the difference in size is not so strongly contrasted between 

 the latter as the two former species. 



Dr. Ernst Hartert, writing in " No\'itates Zoologica' " on specimens oi J\lesophoyx pliniiifem, 

 obtained by Mr. J. T. Tunney on the Alligator and Mary Rivers, in the Northern Territory of 

 South Australia, remarked : — "lam inclined to unite the genus .l/«o/>/;t)_i'.T with Herodias and 

 Gai':cltii. . . . The serrations on the mandible are so fine, the male ornaments not practical as 

 generic characters, the bills so variously shaped, that I cannot see the use of these many genera 

 of Ardeid.€." 



In New South Wales heronies of this species have been found by Mr. S. Robinson on 

 Buckiinguy Station, New South Wales, where it was breeding freely in November, 1893. 

 Near Mathoura, in Riverina, Southern New South Wales, it has also been found in large 

 numbers in company with the Great White Egret, in flooded country adjacent to the waters of 

 the Murray River. LTnless in the breeding season, it is usually met with singly or in pairs, this 

 species being more common outside the marshes on the Macquarie River. I have known it to be 



