ARDEA PURPUREA MADAGASCARIENSIS, 83 
NOTE IX. 
ARDEA PURPUREA MADAGASCARIENSIS, 
NOV. SUBSP. FROM MADAGASCAR 
BY 
Dr. E. D. VAN OORT. 
The purple heron of Madagascar is a much darker 
bird than Ardea purpurea L. of Europe and Africa. 
The fore part of the throat and the neck are streaked 
with black like in this species, but the black streaks are 
broader and more numerous. The black lines, running 
down each side of the neck are much broader. The upper 
parts are olivaceous-brown; back, ends of inner secondaries 
and tail blackish brown with green gloss, especially on 
the back. The narrow, elongated plumes depending from 
the scapulars and inner secondaries are not hoary grey 
and light rufous like in Ardea purpurea L., but brownish 
grey and darker rufous. The lateral feathers of the lower 
neck are olivaceous brownish grey, not slaty grey like in 
purpurea. 
In the Leyden Museum there are two specimens from 
Madagascar: a male from the northwest coast, collected 
by van Dam, and a female, showing the same differences, 
collected at Foulpointe, East Madagascar, 2 November 1875 . 
by J. Audebert. The first-named specimen has already been 
mentioned by Hartlaub, as being of a very intensive colo- 
ration (Vög. Madag. 1877, p. 296). The measurements are: 
wing @ 355, Q 345; culmen o' 140, O 132; tarso-met. 
dg 124, 9 112 mm. 
Notes from the Leyden Museum, Vol. XXXII. 
