TANTALINE. 387 
longest ; tarsus short, reticulated in front, with large hexagonal 
scales; feet moderate; claws short, curved’; head crested’; 
tail broad, even. 
Nycticorax griseus, Lin. 
937.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 758; Butler, Guzerat ; 
Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p. 24; Deccan, Stray Feathers, Vol. 
IX, p. 485; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 276; 
Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India; Ibis, 1885, p. 136. 
THE NicHtT HERON. 
Wak, Hin. 
Length, 21 to 23; wing, 12°5; tail, 3°75 ; tarsus, 3 ; bill at front, 
8 
Bill black, yellowish at base ; lores and orbits yellowish-green ; 
irides blood-red ; feet yellowish-green. 
Forehead and a narrow streak above the eye white ; crown 
of the head, upper part of back, and scapulars, black, glossed with 
green; occiput with a crest of three (or more) narrow long white 
feathers, six to seven inches long, channeled, and fitting into each 
other; lower back, wings, and tail fine blue-grey; all beneath 
pure white. 
The young bird wants the occipital plumes; the upper plumage 
is brownish ashy, with whitish spots; and the lower plumage 
whitish with brown streaks. 
The Night Heron is a common and permanent resident in most 
parts of our district. It breeds during the rains, making a large 
loose stick nest, generally associating in colonies, with other 
species of herons, &c. 
Famity, Tantalide. 
Bill long, more or less thick, arched in many; the culmen 
rounded and bent; nostrils usually basal; wings long; tail rather 
short; tarsus long or moderate; feet moderate; anterior toes 
joined at the base by web; hind-toe moderate, or rather short, 
resting on the ground. 
Sus-FAMILY, Tantaline. 
Bill very large, thick, rounded, smooth ; legs long. 
Genus, Tantalus, Lin. 
Bill lengthened, straight ; culmen rounded; the tip bent down, 
slightly emarginated ; nostrils basal, superior; head, cheeks, and 
throat bare; legs lengthened; tibia nude for half its length ; 
tarsus long, reticulated ; toes moderately long, with a web between 
the front toes ; hind-toe moderately long, slightly raised. 
Tantalus leucocephalus, Forster, 
938,—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 761; Butler, Guzerat ; 
