300 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



bluish green, one inch and seven-eighths long by one inch and 

 a quarter broad. 



The stomach is very capacious, and the weight of the adult 

 bird about one pound five ounces. 



Little or no diflPerence is observable in the sexes ; but the 

 female is somewhat smaller than the male. 



Face and throat white ; crown of the head and back of the 

 neck dark slate-colour; sides of the neck, all the upper 

 surface, and wings dark grey, tinged with brown on the 

 wings ; primaries and tail-feathers dark slate-colour ; elon- 

 gated feathers of the back grey, tinged with brown ; elongated 

 feathers of the breast cinnamon-brown ; under surface grey, 

 washed with rufous, which tint becomes gradually paler as it 

 proceeds along the abdomen to the under tail-coverts ; down 

 the lower part of the neck a stripe of buff, gradually blending 

 above with the white of the throat, and below with the 

 cinnamon tint of the breast ; irides in some lead-colour, in 

 others yellow, and in others pale buff; orbits and base of the 

 bill, in some pale grey, in others deep lead-colour ; base of 

 the lower mandible flesh- colour. 



The white colouring of the face and throat is much more 

 extensive in some individuals than in others ; and the base of 

 the bill, the orbits, and irides are deep lead-colour in some 

 specimens, while in others those parts are pale grey, and the 

 irides pale buff. 



A further subdivision of the Herons will doubtless be here- 

 after instituted, when this and the foregoing species will be 

 placed under one generic title. They differ from the true 

 Arde(B in their more slender form, and in the somewhat down- 

 ward curvature of the mandibles ; they also vary from them in 

 their colouring. 



