160 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 
133. DISSOURA EPISCOPUS (Boddaert). 
WHITE-M@EKED STORK. 
Ardea episcopus BoppAERT, Tabl. Pl. Enl. (1783), 54. 
Dissura episcopus SHARPE, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 294; BLANForD, 
Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1898), 4, 370, fig. 87. 
Disséura episcopus SHARPE, Hand-List (1899), 1, 190; Oares, Cat. Birds’ 
Eggs (1902), 2, 105; McGrecor and WorcesTER, Hand-List (1906), 31. 
Basilan (McGregor) ; Bohol (Steere) ; Calayan (McGregor) ; Leyte (Everett) ; 
Luzon (Heriot, Whitehead) ; Marinduque (Worcester) ; Masbate (Bourns & Wor- 
cester) ; Mindanao (Everett; Celestino, Goodfellow) ; Mindoro (Bourns & Worces- 
ter, McGregor) ; Negros (Steere, Bourns & Worcester, Whitehead, Keay) ; Panay 
(Bourns & Worcester); Samar (Whitehead). Tropical Africa, Indian and Malay 
Peninsulas, Indo-Malay Islands, Indo-Chinese countries, Celebes, Ceylon. 
“Adult male.—Above black, glossed with metallic green and purple, 
more especially on hind neck; entire back and upper tail-coverts glossed 
with metallic green; tail-feathers black, not to be confounded with the 
under tail-coverts, which are white; the outer retrices black, graduated, 
and forming a fork; wing-coverts like the back, but more distinctly 
glossed, especially on the lesser series, which are metallic purplish red ; 
quills black, glossed with slaty externally and with metallic green on 
the inner face of all the quills, crown of head blue-black as far as occiput ; 
nape and entire neck white as well as the throat; chin less thickly 
clothed with feathers; breast black, slightly glossed with metallic green, 
but more strongly with reddish purple, especially on the fore neck and 
chest; abdomen and under tail-coverts white, the long ones stiffened and 
resembling tail-feathers ; axillars and under wing-coverts black with a gloss 
of metallic green. ‘Bill in general black, tinged with red on culmen, 
tips, and margins; legs and toes red; claws reddish horn-color; iris crim- 
son; eyelids and facial skin plumbeous.’ (Oates.) Length, about 915; 
culmen, 914; wing, 508; tail, 183; tarsus, 179. 
“Adult female—Similar to the male. ‘Iris very pale, almost whitish 
hue’ (H.J. Rainey.) Length, 914; culmen, 145; wing, 470; tail, 183; 
tarsus, 157. 
“Young birds differ from the adults in being much browner and not 
having so much gloss, the black feathers on the head being replaced by 
bronzy brown, the purplish gloss on the wing-coverts almost absent, and 
the purple gloss on the breast being replaced by dull bronzy brown. The 
forehead generally shows a basal line of white feathers, but these are also 
apparent in some of the old birds, and are apparently shed by them in 
course of time.” (Sharpe.) 
Specimens obtained in Mindoro have an unfeathered band along the 
under side of the forearm. The skin of this space is dark crimson. 
“Rather rare and very shy. Usually seen soaring at great heights. 
Occasionally met with perching on dead trees, or wading about the rice- 
fields.” (Bourns and Worcester MS.) 
