ARDEA. 163 
as the nostrils, produced to the eye; margins from nostrils to gape dark 
brown; anterior half of lower mandible clear yellow; the posterior. half 
dull yellow; gape and facial skin greenish yellow; edges of the eyelids 
yellow; feet and toes yellowish; the front of the tarsus and toes glossy 
brown; claws dark horn-color; iris yellow.” (Oates.) 
“Adult female.—Similar to the male, but not quite so bright, and the 
black crest plumes not quite so long. 
“* Nestling.—Crown of head, quills, and tail lavender-brown; throat 
and chin pure white; sides of head and upper neck rufous; lower neck 
rufous-gray, the feathers on the sides being centered with brown; lower 
plumage rufescent, each feather more or less dark-centered ; thighs plain 
rufous; upper plumage brown, each feather edged with rufescent, more 
especially on the scapulars and tertiaries; upper and lower wing-coverts 
bluish brown, each feather broadly edged with rufous.’ . (Oates:)” 
(Sharpe.) 
“Young birds have neither crest nor lengthened plumes on scapulars 
or breast; upper parts brownish gray, with broad rufous edges to the 
feathers; crown partly gray; neck rufous, fore neck with black streaks; 
lower surface a mixture of buff and gray.” (Blanford.) 
This species is the commonest of the large herons and may easily be 
identified by means of the preceding excellent descriptions. In a fine- 
plumaged male from Anao, Tarlac Province, Luzon, the upper mandible 
was dusky; lower mandible tyellow, greenish toward base; upper part 
of legs light yellowish green, lower parts brown, Length, 1,000; wing, 
375; tail, 133; tarsus, 124; culmen from frontal feathers, 136; middle 
toe with claw, 135; hind toe with claw, 80. 
Genus ARDEA Linneus, 1758. 
The herons of this typical genus are of large size and except in plumage 
differ little from the members of Pyrrherodia but the bill is comparatively 
heavier and the claws much shorter; tarsus two to two and one-half times 
the length of hind toe with claw. 
Species. 
a’. Crown and neck white (gray in young) ; crest black.................. cinerea (p. 163) 
a’, Crown, neck, and crest gray similar to the rest of the plumage. 
135. ARDEA CINEREA Linneus. ~ 
COMMON HERON, 
_ Ardea cinerea LINN&US, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 
Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 74; Hand-Li 1, 194; BLANFORD, 
Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1898), 4, 382, fig, 844 MereS, Cat. Birds’ Eggs 
(1902), 2, 113; McGrecor and WorcesTem HendtList (1906), 32. 
Guimaras (Steere Exp.). Europe, Asia, Africay Jails 
