32 BULLETIN 186, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Order CICONIIFORMES 

 Family ARDEIDAE 



ARDEA CINEREA RECTIROSTRIS Gould 



Eastern Gray Heron 



Ardea rectirostris Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1843, p. 22 (New South Wales, 



error; Stone suggests " = India?," Austral Avian Rec, vol. 1, 1913, p. 142). 

 Ardea cinerea jouyi, Gyldenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 1916, p. 136 



(Nong Mae Rua). — de Schatjensee, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 1929, 



p. 586 (Chiang Saen) ; 1934, p. 279 (Chiang Mai). 

 Ardea cinerea rectirostris, Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1931, 



p. 173 (Chiang Mai) ; 1936, p. 72 (Chiang Mai). 



The status of this species is uncertain; it is probably chiefly a 

 winter visitor, but a few birds, perhaps sterile individuals, seem to 

 pass the summer in our region. I found it rather common at Chiang 

 Mai from October 19 (1931) to March 29 (1929) but have also seen 

 it there as early as September 23 (1936) and as late as May 26 (1930). 

 Gyldenstolpe took a specimen at Mae Rua, August 7, 1914. I have 

 collected it on the Salwin, at Thattafang, October 16, 1936, and on the 

 Mae Ping, just above Chom Thong, November 23, 1935. A bird in 

 the collection of Cornell University was taken by Vijjakich at 

 Lampang, in April 1929. 



The gray heron is a solitary species, which may be seen at sloughs 

 in the ricefields, on the marshes, at the edge of woodland ponds, and 

 on the sandbars of the great rivers. Specimens whose stomachs I 

 examined had been feeding on fishes. 



Members of the heron family may be recognized in flight at any 

 distance by the deliberate strokes of their broad wings, the long legs 

 extending behind beyond the tail, and by their carrying the head 

 drawn back and resting over the lower neck. The present species is 

 the largest of the northern herons and in the field appears generally 

 dark gray; it has the neck and underparts white with some black 

 markings and a long, black crest of narrow feathers. Immature 

 birds, which are commoner than adults, are colored more brownish 

 gray. 



ARDEA PURPUREA MANILENSIS Meyen 



Eastern Purple Heron 



Ardea purpurea var. manilensis Meyen, Observationes zoologicae in itinere 

 circum terrain institutae, in Nova Acta Academiae Caesareae Leopoldino- 

 Carolinae Naturae Curiosorum, vol. 16, suppl. 1, 1834, pp. 102-103 (Manila, 

 P. I.). 



Pyrrherodias manillensis, Gyldenstolpe, Kungl. Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl., 

 1916, p. 136 ("Northern Siam"). 



Ardea purpurea manillensis, Deignan, Journ. Siam Soc. Nat. Hist. Suppl., 1931. 

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



