36 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



a diagonal line from its base to the corner of the mouth black ; the 

 maxilla yellow, tipped black; the mandible with the basal half bluish 

 green, the rest yellow, except for a black patch on each side near the 

 tip ; the tarsi bright yellow-green, more yellow behind ; the toes bright 

 yellow-green ; the soles bright yellow ; the claws horny brown, tinged 

 olive or yellowish at the tips. 



The pond heron is the well-known brown bird with streaked head 

 and neck that roosts on the bamboos or sits hunched up at the margin 

 of some wet place, often invisible until it startles the observer by 

 flying up with a squawk and a flashing of pure white wings. In 

 nuptial plumage, which will be less often seen, it has the head and 

 neck dark chestnut, the back covered with dark slaty-blue plumes. 



Despite numerous reports of Ardeola grayii in North Thailand, 

 the actual occurrence of this species must be held very doubtful. 

 Upon examining the specimens upon which the records have been 

 based, I have discovered that they are, without exception, birds in 

 nonbreeding dress, and I have found no satisfactory criteria that 

 serve to distinguish between grayii and bacchus in this plumage. 

 Moreover, every specimen in full or partial nuptial plumage is ob- 

 viously bacchus. My own records for grayii were based upon a mis- 

 understanding of what constitutes the breeding dress and are hereby 

 withdrawn. 



BUBULCUS IBIS COROMANDUS (Boddaert) 



Eastern Cattle Egret 



Cancroma Coromanda Boddaekt, Table des planches elumineez d'histoire natur- 



elle, 1783, p. 54 (Cororaandel, ex D'Aubenton, pi. 910). 

 Bubulcus coromandus, Gyxdenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1916, 



p. 139 (Chiang Rai) ; Ibis, 1920, p. 769 ("Throughout the whole country"). 

 Bubulcus ibis coromandus, Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1931, 



p. 173 (Chiang Mai) ; 1936, p. 73 (Chiang Mai). 



The cattle egret is common and generally distributed throughout the 

 northern lowlands, but appears to be only a winter visitor. At Chiang 

 Mai it arrives in numbers about August 9 and finally disappears 

 about April 12. Gyldenstolpe collected a specimen at Chiang Rai, 

 August 15, 1914 ; I saw flocks at Phayao, August 28, 1929, and took an 

 example at Ban Mae Mo, August 22, 1936. Our birds may come in 

 from southern China, as true migrants, but more probably reach our 

 districts as northward wanderers from southern Thailand, where this 

 species is known to breed in many localities. The specimen from Mae 

 Mo is a male in worn nuptial plumage, and many birds in nuptial dress 

 may be seen in March, but the great majority will be in the pure white 

 nonbreeding plumage. 



The cattle egret has habits that make it less dependent upon the 

 presence of water than any other of our herons, and it does not usually 



