418 Mr. R,. Swinhoe on Formosan Ornithology. 



the eye. Legs black, the toes clayey ochre, with a tinge of 

 greenish ; claws and the scutes adjoining black." 



157. Herodias eulophotes, Swinhoe, Ibis, 1860, p. 64. 



This species, which I first discovered and noted as a rare bird 

 at Amoy, was pretty common on the Tamsuy river, being fre- 

 quently seen in parties of four and five, and occasionally in com- 

 pany with the H. garzetta. They are never to be met with in 

 very large flocks. They nest, in company with the common 

 species, on the branches of trees ; at least, I have watched them in 

 the same heronries, though I have never succeeded in taking their 

 eggs. In confinement they object to the approach of strangers, 

 starting back and ruffling their feathers, and pecking with savage- 

 ness at the hand put coaxingly forward. This and the H. garzetta 

 feed almost entirely on fish, shrimps, and Squillce-, whereas the 

 Yellowhead {Buphus coromandus) and all the Ardetta group are 

 to a great extent omnivorous. I have kept alive most of the 

 ArdeidcE that occur in China, and I have noticed that the Egrets 

 would pine away unless small fresh fish were constantly supplied 

 to them : they would not take flesh or bread as a substitute. All 

 the others, Ardea cinerea included, would make a meal off bread 

 and meat when fish failed. I procured both males and females 

 of this species at Tamsuy. The female is a little larger, but 

 they are not otherwise to be distinguished. 



This Egret has a fine clear yellow bill in summer, becoming 

 tinged with brown in winter. Its cere is tinged with green and 

 purple; its irides light pearly yellow. Its legs are in summer black, 

 in winter greenish brown ; its feet and claws are greenish yellow. 

 From H. garzetta it can at all seasons be distinguished by its 

 light and shorter bill, and by its much shorter legs; but in 

 summer its fine full crest marks it at once as different, as well 

 as the scantiness of the dorsal plumes, which do not, as in that 

 species, exceed the tail, and turn feathering upwards. It has 

 considerably more affinity with H. candidissima of America; 

 but that bird is of different proportions, and has a black bill 

 and feet. This bird, in common with most of the Heron tribe, 

 loses it crest early in August ; and the other nuptial plumes are 

 then much worn and scanty, and soon drop away. The breeding- 

 season is then over. 



