460 



EGRETTA NIGRIROSTRIS. THE BLACK-BILLED 



EGRET. 



Fig. 38. 



Egretta nigrirostris. Bonap. Comp. List, 47. (?) 



Length about three feet and two-thirds ; occipital feathers 

 very slighly elongated ; dorsal plumes with the shaft stiffish, 

 straight, and extending a little beyond the tail; plumage 

 white; bill black, with the tip dull greenish-grey ; bare pre- 

 ocular space verdigris green; feet dingy flesh-coloured, but 

 the tarsal and digital scutella dusky. 



Male. — This species is superior in size to the Common 

 Heron, which it greatly exceeds in elegance of form. The 

 hody is of moderate size, much compressed ; the neck very 

 long and slender ; the head rather small, oblong, and much 

 compressed. The bill is long, stout, compressed, tapering ; 

 the upper mandible with the dorsal line straight for two- 

 thirds from the base, then slightly declinato-convex, the 

 ridge broad at the base, narrow but convex in the rest of its 

 extent ; the nasal depression narrow, elongated, with a 

 groove from its fore part extending nearly to a third from 

 the tip, the sides convex, the edges direct and sharp ; lower 



