156 Mr. E. L. Layard on the Ornithology of Fiji. 



under plumage suffused with delicate pink_, M'hich is visible 

 even under the delicate grey of the back ; it extends over the 

 underside of the wings. An outer tail-feather^, just growing, 

 is a rich pink, deepest near the root, the shaft is also pink; 

 this fades as the feather grows older and more elongated ; 

 outer vane of first wing-primary jet-black. 



Shot on the reef at Ovalau, October 4th, 1875, by my son. 

 Stomach contained bones and scales of small fish. Other 

 specimens have since been obtained and seen ; and on the 

 10th of October I saw what I am convinced were three ex- 

 amples of Anous cinereus (Neboux) . I believe that visits to 

 the Yassawas and low-lying islands to windward would add 

 largely to the list of sea-fowl inhabiting Fiji. I obtained A. 

 cinereus abundantly, nearly twenty years ago, on the coral 

 islands to the N.E. of Madagascar. 



Ardea sacra, Gmel. 



A reference to the synonyms of this bird, given by Drs. 

 Finsch and Hartlaub in their ' Fauna Central-Polynesiens,' 

 and Jerdon's 'Birds of India' (vol. iii. p. 748), shows the 

 confusion that exists as to the identity of the Indian and Aus- 

 tralian birds. 



I perceive that Jerdon says, on my authority, that the 

 young birds are white. I have not my notes of Ceylon birds 

 with me ; bat if I remember rightly, after so many years, I 

 found it breeding near Tangalle in tolerable plenty. 



I have just obtained (2nd November) a pair of young 

 ones, male and female, from the nest, of the species that in- 

 habits these islands ; and they are dark s/a/e-coloured-T-much 

 blacker and glossier, in fact, than a slate-coloured bird in full 

 plumage, although long filaments of white down still remain 

 on the head &c. Europeans and natives assure me that they 

 breed in both phases of plumage, and that sometimes a white 

 bird will be mated with a blue one. 



It nests indiflferently on rocks, on the ground, or in the 

 mangrove or other trees that line the sea-shore. 



Now, if the Indian bird is always white when young, and 

 our bird is slate-co\o\XYeA, may not that fact indicate that the 



