Mr. R. Swinhoc on Formosan Ornithology. 421 



run behind a bank or among the reeds, trying to walk out of 

 danger^s way. It is only on sudden alarms that they take 

 wing; they then do not fly right away, but drop at no great 

 distance into the first cover. 



160. Ardeola prasinosceles, Swinhoe, Ibis, 1860, p. 64. 



Professor Schlegel, of Leyden, who is well acquainted with the 

 A. speciosa of Java, and has the credit of being anything but a 

 species-maker, agrees with me in considering this bird distinct 

 from the Malayan form. I feel myself therefore the more jus- 

 tified in disagreeing with the opinions of such high authorities as 

 Messrs. Sclater and Blyth, as expressed in this Journal (vol. iii. 

 p. 52). The species of Squacco Herons will therefore now 

 stand A. comata (Pallas) of Africa and Southern Europe; A. 

 leucoptera (Bodd.) of India ; A. speciosa (Horsf.) of Java ; 

 A. rnalaccensis of Malacca and the Deccan {A. grayi, Sykes) ; 

 and A. prasinosceles, Swinhoe, of China. Our Ardeola is a 

 constant resident in South China and Formosa, frequenting 

 wet paddy-fields during the day, where they feed on grass- 

 hoppers and almost anything they can catch, and roosting at 

 night on the banyan and other large trees. They are called 

 Tsan-la, or Rice-field Herons, by the Chinese, and Paddy-birds 

 by Europeans. They may often be seen together in the same 

 field, as they are a common species, but they neither associate 

 in flocks, nor breed in company. Their wicker nests are usually 

 placed on the high branches of banyan trees ; and their eggs, 

 seldom exceeding three in number, are bluish white and rather 

 large. The young birds are splashed with dusky on the wings, 

 but they are otherwise very similar to the adult in winter dress. 

 In September the summer plumage begins to fall away, and is 

 replaced by the winter feathers, in which latter dress, as has 

 been before remarked, the several species of the genus are almost 

 undistinguishable from one another. In April the complete 

 nuptial dress is again assumed. A. speciosa diff'ers from our 

 species in having a whitish head, neck, and occipital plumes, 

 instead of these parts being of a bright brownish-red colour. In 

 fact it is intermediate between the Chinese bird and the A. 

 malaccensis, which has the head and neck yellowish grey, and the 



