GRALLATORES. 303 



Sp. 550. HERODTAS EGRETTOIDES. 



Plumed Egret. 



Ardea intermedia, Wagl. Isis, 1829, p. 659. 



flavirostris, Bonnat. et Vieill. Ency. Meth. Orn., partiii. p. 1124. 



nigrirostris, Gray, Zool. Misc., p. 19. 



Egretta egrettoides, Bonap. Compt. Rend, de l^Acad. Sci., torn. xl. 



seance du 2 Avril 1855. 

 Herodias plumiferus, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc, part xv. p. 221, 



Herodias plumiferus, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. vi. pi. 57. 



No one of the members of the beautiful genus Herodias is 

 more interesting than the present species, inasmuch as it is 

 not only adorned with the redundance of graceful plumes 

 springing from the back, common to the other species, but it 

 has a mass of feathers of precisely the same structure depending 

 from the lower part of the neck and the chest. In size it is 

 directly intermediate between H. alba and H. melanopus. I 

 possess a specimen from the Namoi, in the southern part of 

 Australia, and another from the north coast ; and I have also 

 a third from Torres Straits, which proves that its range is very 

 extensive; the latter example is destitute of the lengthened 

 plumes, which are probably only assumed during the breeding- 

 season. 



The entire plumage is pure white ; bill and orbits yellow ; 

 feet and lower part of the tarsi black ; upper part of the tarsi 

 inclining to flesh-colour. 



Total length 24 inches ; bill 4 ; wing 1 1 ; tail 4 J ; tarsi ^\. 



In the folio edition this bird is figured under the name of 

 11. plumiferus; but ornithologists generally consider that the 

 specific term egrettoides of Bonaparte is the one which properly 

 pertains to it, and hence the adoption of that name. 



Erom my remarks on the wide distribution of some of the 

 preceding species, we are led to infer that these Water-Herons 

 are great wanderers. They are generally solitary birds, except 

 in the breeding-season, when they congregate in great numbers. 



