1887.] PKOCEEDINGS OF UNI'lED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 297 



tarsus as long as, or longer than, the bill, "while Yigors's original meas- 

 urements show the bill one-fourth of an inch longer than the tarsus. 



Having no access to a specimen, I quote the original description of X. 

 erassirostris : 



"Above, chestnut-red; below and the three occipital plumes, white; 

 head above, black; bill, thick, nearly straight; the lower mandible 

 whitish with dusky tip; the upper one black. 



" Length of the body, 21 ; of the wing, from the bend to the end of 

 the third primary, 10^ ; of the bill, 4^; of the tail, 5; of the tarsus, 4. 



"This species agrees in every respect with the yi/ct. CaJedonica in its 

 colors and the distribution of them, with the exception of the coloj of 

 the bill, which is black in the latter bird. It diflers essentially, how- 

 ever, in the shape of the bill, which is much more solid and nearly 

 straight, approaching in this respect to the bill of the Bitterns. The 

 proportions of the wiug also are different, the length from the carjial 

 joint to the extremity of the largest quill-feather being an inch less in 

 our bird than in the allied species." 



Von Kittlitz makes the following remarks on the birds collected by 

 him: "The figure [/. c] represents a fully developed male, and this 

 seems to be the perfect plumage. True, I shot once a specimen of a 

 very beautiful, entirely unspotted dark Isabel color, with slate-colored 

 top of the head and a crest consisting of three long plumes, quite 

 similar to that of A. caledonica as it is seen in the Paris Museum, but 

 this was a female. Another female, on the other hand, was still more 

 strongly spotted than the other males, with very short crest." 



Schlegel has probably united N. erassirostris with K. manillensis on 

 account of their habitats being neighboring, while X. caledonicus is 

 more southern and western. But the first-mentioned species is said to 

 resemble X. caledonicus in every respect except in the size and shape 

 of the bill, which is larger and heavier. The adults of the three forms 

 may probably be distinguished by the following characters derived from 

 an Australian specimen of X. caledonicus and the published descriptions 

 of the others : * 

 «'. Exposed culmen sliorter than tarsus. 



¥. Occipital plumes wholly black, or at the tips at least ; axillaries pale rufous ; fore 

 neck, upper breast, auddauks pale rufous tawny N. maniUensis. 



¥-. Occipital plumes wholly white, axillaries pure white; fore neck and upper 

 breast slightly tinged with ocraceous buff, flanks pure white. ..iS". caledonicus. 



a-. Exposed culmen longer than tarsus (coloration similar to foregoing species) 



JS'. erassirostris. 



The type of X. erassirostris does not seem to be in existence any more, 

 for the Marquis of Tweeddale remarks (Trans. Zool. Soc, IX., p. 238 ; 

 Orn. Works, p. 400) that it is no longer contained in the British Mu- 

 seum, although enumerated in the Hand-list as being extant. 



* For descriptions of Philippine specimens of ^V. maiiiUensis, see Tweeddale, P. Z. S., 

 1877, p. 769 ; 1873, p. 346 ; Orn. Works, pp. 542, 602. 



