420 Mr. R. Swinhoe on Formosan Ornithology. 



which three eggs are usually laid. The eggs are bluish white, 

 with a tinge of green, much lighter and rather larger than those 

 of H. garzetta. In South China and Formosa this bird, as I said 

 before, is only found as a summer visitant, wending southwards 

 in winter, which season it doubtless passes in India and its 

 archipelago, though I can find no note of that fact in any work. 

 Adult, shot 1st May. "Length 15 in.; wing 9^; tail S^g, 

 square, of 12 feathers. Bill, lore, and eye-rim orange-yellow, 

 the two latter covered with a thin powdery skin ; region of the 

 eye somewhat tinged with blue. Iris bright yellow. Inside of 

 mouth yellowish flesh-colour. Tibia blackish at the top, the 

 remainder, with the knees, greenish ; tarsus and toes dark brown, 

 and both obscurely washed with green, paler on the soles ; claws 

 blackish brown." 



159. BuTORiDES jAVANicus (Horsf.). 



" Ardea scapularis, Wagl.," v. Schrenck. 



This solitary, skulking. Bittern-like species is abundant in' all 

 marshy grounds throughout Formosa, a few also occurring in 

 winter. It feeds by day, prowling about in the water-covered 

 fields of paddy, searching for tadpoles, shrimps, and small fish, 

 as well as for grasshoppers and many kinds of insects. At night 

 it roosts on long reeds and bamboos, or on the branches of trees. 

 On these I have seen it nesting. I procured one egg at Tai- 

 wanfoo, which is of a pale duck's-egg colour, 1"63 in. long and 

 1*25 broad. The young are more like the adult than is usually 

 the case among the lesser Herons. 



I procured two young examples in September. The dark 

 green of the head is striped longitudinally with ochreous ; the 

 cheeks are also streaked. The under parts, instead of being a 

 uniform greyish brown, are broadly streaked with that colour, 

 ochreous, and white, which, however, blend into one another. A 

 few of the feathers of the back, scapulars, and lesser coverts 

 carry one spot of ochreous apiece at their tips. The colours 

 generally are scarcely so bright as in the adult, but in other 

 respects they are very similar. Iris clear yellow. The lore, edge 

 of upper and basal half of lower mandible greenish yellow ; the 

 rest black. Legs and toes yellowish green, with blackish claws. 



These birds are not easily scared. When observed, they 



