ARDEID&. 377 
upper tail-coverts glossed with green, as is part of the lower 
back ; tail white. 
The White-necked Stork is tolerably common throughout the 
region. It is a permanent resident. 
Famity, Ardeida. 
Bill typically more slender than in the Storks, very sharp, 
deeply cleft ; legs long, scutellated; toes long, slender; outer-toe 
only joined by web to the middle one ; hind-toe long, on the 
same plane as the others; middle-toe with the inner edge of the 
claw dilated and pectinated; nostrils narrow, at the basal extre- 
mity of a long furrow. 
Genus, Ardea, Linn. 
Bill elongate, straight, thick, compressed, poimted; the upper 
mandible with a groove from the nostrils, evanescent towards 
the tip; nostrils near the base narrow, longitudinal, partially 
concealed. by membrane; wings moderately long, the second, 
third, and fourth quills usually sub-equal and longest; tail short, 
even; tarsus lengthened, usually scutellate m front; toes long; 
outer-toe connected to the middle one by a web; claws long, 
that of the middle-toe with the inner margin produced, and 
pectinated, of large size, usually grey above, with the neck 
moderately long and slender, and the feathers of the lower neck 
and breast lengthened and pendent. 
Ardea cinerea, Zin. 
923.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 741; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p. 28; Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. 
_ IX, p. 433; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 269; 
Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India; Ibis, 1885, p. 135. 
THE BLUE HERON. 
Length, 39; expanse, 66; wing, 18; tail, 8; tarsus, 5°75; 
bill at front, 5. 
Bill dark yellow, brownish on culmen; irides gamboge-yellow ; 
lores and naked orbitar skin greenish; legs and feet brown. 
Adult: forehead and crown pure white; occiput black, and a 
pendent crest of narrow, long, black feathers at the back of the 
head; neck white; back and wings fine bluish-grey; quills 
black ; scapulars silvery-grey, long and pointed, forming graceful 
plumes; tail bluish-ashy ; forepart of the neck with longitudinal 
black spots, the feathers drooping down on the top of. the breast, 
loose, and elongated, and forming a fine pectoral plume; lower 
breast and the rest of the under parts pure white. 
The young bird has the head and neck ashy, with dusky-grey 
streaks in front; the upper plumage tinged with brown; and 
the lengthened occipital feathers as well as the breast plumes 
absent. 
