18S7.J PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 317 



crest '' consisting of many plumes more than 3 inches long, wLicli form 

 a kind oi mane,'''' consequently toto coelo different from the two or three 

 long, ribbon-like plumes of the true H. garzetta, and apparently like the 

 crest of H. eulophofes Swinhoe. The tarsus is also said to be shorter. 

 Brehm's collection ought to be brought to light some day and his types 

 examined. 



Herodias immaculata Gould may possibly belong to the following 

 species, but is probably distinct from both. We have Salvadori's word 

 for it that it is different from E. (jarzetta (Prodr. Orn. Pap. Mol., XII, p. 

 17, foot-note ; Ann. Mus. Civ. St. Nat. Genova, XYIII, 1882, p. 334). 



Individuals from Java, Borneo, and Celebes have been separated as 

 Herodias nigripes* on account of the toes being black and the basal 

 half of the lower mandible light, and Walden refers the birds of the 

 Philippine Islands to this race (P. Z. S., 1877, p. 703). In the true H. 

 garzetta the toes are usually yellow, in strong contrast with the dusky 

 tarsus, but Schlegel (Mus. P.-Bas, Ardete, p. 13) enumerates specimens 

 from Japan, some with yellow toes and some with the toes dusky. It 

 may l>e that both races meet in Southern Japan, but there is also a bare 

 possibility that the dark-toed specimens belong to Swinhoe's H. eidopho- 

 tes. 



Our museum possesses no Japanese specimen of the Little Egret, 

 which, therefore, is one of our desiderata, and I am unable to say 

 ^ whether Schlegel's remark that specimens from Japan, as a rule, are 

 smaller than those from Europe holds good. The few measurements of 

 European specimens below may help in solving this question, I add 

 the dimensions of a specimen from Pegu, apparently belonging to A. 

 nigripes, to show that they differ in nowise from the true R. garzetta. 



Measurements. 

 I. — Herodias garzetta. 



ISiO.—Ardea nigripes Teumisck, Man. d'Oru., 2 ed., IV, p. 377 {nom. niid.). —Herodias 

 n. Waldex, Tr. Zool. Soc, VIII, p. 99 (1872).— W. Blasius, Joiirn. f. Orn., 

 1882, p. 253.— Id., Zeit.scbr. Ges. Oru., 1885, p. 316. 



1876.—Ardea fjarzetta var, nigripes Bruggem.\x, Abh.Natur. Ver. Bremen, V, p. 96. 



