THE LITTLE EGRETS. 77 



through Asia to China and Japan, and south to the Malay 

 Peninsula and the Philippines. Prom Java, throughout the 

 Moluccas to Australia, its place is taken by an allied species, 

 G. nigt'ipes^ which has the toes perfectly black. 



I. THE LITTLE EGRET. GARZETTA GARZETTA. 



Ardea garzetta^ Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 237 (1766); Dresser, B. 

 Eur. vi. p. 239, pi. 399 (1880) ; B. O. U. List Br. B. p. 109 

 (1883); Seebohm, Br. B. ii. p. 481 (1884); Saunders, ed. 

 Yarn Br. B. iv. p. 182 (1884); id. Man. Br. B. p. 361 

 (1889); Liiford, Col. Fig. Br. B. part xxi. (1892). 



E'^retta garzetta^ Macg. Br. B. iv. p. 471 (1852). 



Garzetta garzetta, Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvi. p. 119. 



{Plate LXVIL) 



Adult Male. — Snowy-white above and below, with two elon- 

 gated plumes drooping from the nape ; a dense dorsal train, 

 consisting of beautiful elongated feathers of decomposed tex- 

 ture, the long ones slightly recurved upwards at the ends ; 

 from the fore-neck depend some elongated lanceolate plumes; 

 bill black ; the bare skin about the eye and the base of the 

 bill whitish-buff; tibia and tarsus black, the feet greenish 

 yellow, the joints of the toes above spotted with black ; iris 

 pale ashy-yellow, with an outer circle of brownish-red. Total 

 length, about 20 inches; culmen, ■^'2,-, wing, io"5 ; tail, 2*75; 

 tarsus, 37. 



Adult Female. — Similar to the male, but with the ornamental 

 plumes somewhat less developed. Total length, 22-5 inches; 

 culmen, 3-45; wing, 11-3; tail, 3-9; tarsus, 375. 



Winter Plumage. — White, as in summer, but lacking the orna- 

 mental plumes on the nape and chest, as well as the dorsal 

 train. 



Young Birds. — Resemble the winter plumage of the adults. 



Eange in Great Britain. — Only one specimen seems authentic- 

 ally to have been established as having occurred in England, 

 an adult bird killed at Countess Weir on the Exe on the 3rd of 

 June, 1870; though Mr. Howard Saunders thinks that a second 



