320 On a Collection of Birds from the Andaman Islands. 



Sykes, on receiving similar individuals from the Nicobars, 

 described it under the name of Demiegretta concolor (I. c.) , 

 the chief differences he relied on being the shorter tarsus and 

 the absence or almost entire absence of white about the throat. 

 Subsequently Colonel Tytler named the Andaman bird He- 

 rodias andamanensis (I. c.) ; and this, Mr. Blyth (Ibis, 1868, 

 p. 133) identified with his D. concolor, a species, he added, 

 which he had never seen in white plumage. 



The two examples obtained by Mr. Ramsay agree perfectly 

 with Malaccan and Celebesian individuals, and fall therefore 

 under true Ardea sacra, Gtn. But according to Von Pelzeln 

 (/. c), D. concolor is a good and distinct species, and inhabits 

 the Nicobars as well as D.jugularis ( = sacra, 6m.). Of this 

 last the Novara Expedition obtained one Nicobar example, 

 which Von Pelzeln correlates with two from Tahiti and two 

 from Panypet, together with three from the Carolines, one 

 from the East Indies, and one from Java, in the Berlin mu. 

 seum. Of D. concolor, the same expedition obtained at the 

 Nicobars, and there only, three individuals ( $ ) in adult 

 plumage, two in dark plumage, with white throat, and one in 

 snow-white dress. Dr. Finsch (Orn. Central-Polyn. p. 206) 

 does not admit the specific distinction of the Nicobar ex- 

 amples, and states that examples from Amboina are nearly as 

 small as those included bv Von Pelzeln under D. concolor. 



