ARDEA. 163 



as the nostrils, produced to the eye; margins from nostrils to gape dark 

 brown; anterior half of lower mandible clear yellow; the posterior half 

 dull yellow; gape and facial skin greenish yellow; edges of the eyelids 

 yellow; feet and toes yellowish; the front of the tarsus and toes glossy 

 brown; claws dark horn-color; iris yellow." (Oates.) 



^' Adult female. — Similar to the male, but not quite so bright, and the 

 black crest plumes not quite so long. 



" ' Nestling. — Crown of head, qiiills, and tail lavender-brown ; throat 

 and chin pure white; sides of head and upper neck rufous; lower neck 

 rufous-gray, the feathers on the sides being centered with brown; lower 

 plumage rufescent, each featlier more or less dark-centered : thighs plain 

 rufous; upper plumage brown, each feather edged with rufescent, more 

 especially on the scapulars and tertiaries; upper and lower wing-coverts 

 bluish brown, each feather broadly edged with rufous.' (Oates.)" 

 (Sharpe.) 



"Young birds have neither crest nor lengthened plumes on scapulars 

 or breast; ujiper parts bro\\aiish gray, with broad rufous edges to the 

 feathers; crown partly gray; neck rufous, fore neck with black streaks; 

 lower surface a mixture of buff and gray." {Blanford.) 



This species is the commonest of the large herons and may easily be 

 identified by means of the preceding excellent descriptions. In a fine- 

 plumaged male from Anao, Tarlac Province, Luzon, the upper mandible 

 was dusky; lower mandible yellow, greenish toward base; upper part 

 of legs light yellowish green, lower parts brown. Length, 1,000; wing, 

 375; tail, 133; tarsus, 124; culmen from frontal feathers, 136; middle 

 toe with claw, 135; hind toe with claw, 80. 



Genus ARDEA Linnsus, 1758. 



The herons of this typical genus are of large size and except in plumage 

 differ little from the members of Pyrrherodia but the bill is comparatively 

 heavier and the claws much shorter; tarsus two to two and one-half times 

 the length of hind toe with claw. 



Species. 



o'. Crown and neck white (gray in young) ; crest black cinerea (p. 103) 



a-. Crown, neck, and crest gray similar to the rest of the plumage. 



sumatrana (p. 165) 

 1.3;-). ARDEA CINEREA l.iiuiiius. 



COMMON HERON. 



Ardea cinerea Linn^us, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 143; Sharpk, Cat. 

 Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 74; Hand-List (1899), 1, 194; Blanford, 

 Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1898), 4, 382, fig. 84; 0.\tks, Cat. Birds' Eggs 

 (1902), 2, 113; McGregor and Worcester. Hand-List (1900), 32. 



Guimaras (Steere Exp.). Europe, Asia, Africa, Au.stralia. 



