294 Mr. T. Ayres on the Ornithology of Transvaal. 



Ardea purpurea^ Linn. Purple Heron. 



Female, adult, Potchefstroom, 7ih. June, 1884. Stomach 

 contained small perch. 



These Herons are still tolerably numerous about the 

 swamps of the Potchefstroom district, though their numbers 

 are gradually decreasing, owing, no doubt, to the increase of 

 shooting and to the reed-beds where they breed being disturbed 

 by the cutting of the reeds for thatching. 



Ardea rufiventriSj Sund. Rufous-bellied Heron. 

 One of these Herons was shot by ray brother on the river 

 Limpopo, at its junction with the river Matlabas. 



Butorides atricapilla (Afzel.). African Black-headed 

 Heron. 



Male, immature, river Hex, Rustenburg district, 8th 

 December, 1883. 



This species is not found in the Potchefstroom district, but 

 is not uncommon here and there in certain localities in the 

 warmer parts of Transvaal. 



[As neither edition of Mr. Layard^s work describes the 

 immature plumage of this Heron, it may be well to mention 

 that it differs from the adult dress in the presence of a tri- 

 angular spot of buffy white on each feather of the wing- 

 coverts except those of the least coverts, where the corre- 

 sponding spots are brown and are also smaller ; the scapulars 

 are spotted like the greater coverts^ and the interscapulary 

 feathers are marked with spots resembling those on the lesser 

 coverts, but not so dark ; the sides of the head are streaked 

 alternately with black and brown, and a few minute brown 

 streaks are interspersed amongst the black feathers of the 

 crown ; the whole under surface of the body differs from that 

 of the adult bird in being variegated with alternate longi- 

 tudinal striations of blackish slate-colour and buffy white. — 

 J. H.G.] 



Ardetta podiceps, Bon. Rufous-necked Little Bittern. 

 Female, adult, Potchefstroom, July 1884. 

 [In ' The Ibis ' for 1878, p. 300, I expressed an opinion 

 that an immature Little Bittern, sent by Mr. Ayres from 



