428 



BOTAURUS COMATUS. SQUACCO BITTERN. 



Ardea comata. Pallas. Beis. II. 715. 



Ardea comata. Squacco Heron. Perm. Brit. Zool. II. 26. 



Ardea comata, Squaiota, and castanea. Lath. Ind. Ornith. 686, 687. 



Heron crabier. Ardea Ealloides. Temm. Man. d'Ornith. II. 581. 



Ardea Ealloides. Flem. Brit. Anim. 96. 



Squacco Heron. Ardea Ealloides. Selby, Illustr. Brit. Ornith. II. 25. 



Ardea Ealloides. Squacco Heron. Jen. Brit. Vert. Anim. 189. 



Buphus Ealloides. Bonap. Comp. List, 48. 



Bill slender, blue at the base, dusky toward the end ; feet 

 greenish-yellow ; upper part of the head pale yellow, with 

 dusky lines; on the occiput eight or ten white feathers, having 

 a black line along their margins ; upper parts pale reddish- 

 brown; icings, rump, and tail white; as are the loiver parts, 

 which, however, are more or less tinged with buff. 



Adult. — This beautiful species, remarkable for its long 

 occipital plume of white feathers, each with two sub-mar- 

 ginal black lines, is of the usual form and proportions of the 

 Egrets, but with the legs less elongated. The bill is about 

 a fourth longer than the head, slender, tapering, straight, 

 compressed ; the upper mandible with the dorsal line straight 

 until toward the end, the sides convex, the groove extending 

 to a fifth from the end, the edges sharp, the tip acute ; the 

 lower mandible with the angle very long and extremely 

 narrow, the dorsal line very slightly ascending, the sides 

 concave, the edges sharp, the tip acuminate ; gape-line 

 commencing behind the eye. 



Nostrils linear in the lower and fore part of the nasal 

 membrane. Eyes large. Aperture of ear rather small, 

 rounded. 



