474 



EGRETTA RUSSATA. THE BUFF-BACKED 

 EGRET. 



Ardea russata. "Wagler Syst. Av. 



Little White Heron. Ardea aequinoctialis. Mont. Orn. Diet. Supplt. 



Buff-backed Heron. Ardea russata. Selb. Illustr. II. 24. 



Ardea russata. Buff-backed Heron: Jen. Brit. Vert. An. 188. 



Bupbus russatus. Bonap. Comp. List. 47. 



Bill stout, tail slightly emarginate. Adult with the 

 feathers of the hind head and neck elongated, hairlike, and 

 reddish-yellow ; dorsal plumes slender, decomposed, and of 

 the same colour ; fore part of breast and back tinged with 

 cream-colour ; the rest of the plumage white ; bill pale yellow ; 

 feet dusky anteriorly, yellowish behind. Young without 

 elongated feathers, pure white, except the head, which is 

 tinged with yellow ; bill pale yellow ; feet dusky green. 



This beautiful Egret, of which only a single specimen has 

 been obtained in England, has the bill proportionally stouter, 

 the neck and legs shorter, and the toes longer than in many 

 other species ; but these, and other characters which it pre- 

 sents, do not seem to me sufficient to justify Boie and the 

 Prince of Musignano in referring it to a genus by itself. 

 Egretta candidissima and rufescens, both referred by the 

 latter author to the same genus as Egretta Leuce and alba, 

 differ from these species and from each other, quite as much 

 as they differ from the present. In short, were this arbitrary 

 formation of genera tolerated, every single species of the 

 family ought to constitute a genus. 



Male. — Much inferior in size to Egretta Garzetta, and 

 about equal to Egretta candidissima, although differing from 



