ARDEID^E HERODIAS 65 



b. Bill black ; a pair of elongate narrow plumes 

 on the nape ; ornamental decomposed 

 plumes on the breast in the breeding 

 season ........................................... H. garzetta, p. 68. 



589. Herodias alba. Great White Egret. 



i*^A^~s- 



Ardea alba, Linn. %s. Nat. 12th ed., i, p. 239 (1766) ; Buckley, Ibis, 



1874, p. 390; Dresser, B. Eur. vi, p. 231, pi. 398 (1880) ; Holub d 



Pelzeln, Orn. Siid-Afr. p. 273 (1882). 

 Herodias alba, Gurney in Andersson's B. Damaral. p. 289 (1872) ; 



Sharpe, ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. p. 714 (1884) ; Ayres, Ibis, 1885, 



p. 349 ; Symonds, Ibis, 1887, p. 335 ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 157 (1896) ; 



Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxvi, p. 90 (1898) ; Woodward Bros. Natal B. 



p. 194 (1899) ; Marshall, Ibis, 1900, p. 270 ; Alexander, ibid. p. 439 ; 



Reichenoiv, Vog. Afr. i, p. 388 (1901) ; Whitehead, Ibis, 1903, p. 237. 



Description. Adult Female in breeding dress. Plumage pure 

 white throughout ; head slightly crested ; scapulars produced and 

 forming elongated decomposed plumes extending beyond the tail ; 

 feathers on the fore-neck and sides of the breast also fully developed 

 and forming a kind of shield over the latter, but not decomposed. 



Iris pale yellow ; bill chrome yellow, blackish towards the tip and 

 along the commissure ; bare skin in front of the eye greenish ; legs 

 and feet black throughout. 



Length (in flesh) 38 ; wing 14'0 ; tail 6'2 ; culmen 4'25 ; tarsus 

 5-7 ; middle toe 4-10. 



The adult in non-breeding dress loses the ornamental plumes, 

 and the bill is entirely yellow ; the young birds are also without 

 plumes, and have a softer and more downy plumage. 



In European and Asiatic examples of this bird the bill is quite 

 black in the breeding season, and yellow at other times ; but in 

 Africa the bill appears never to become quite black ; the dimensions 

 also vary very remarkably among individuals of this species ; those 

 given above (of a female from Potchefstroom) are small as com- 

 pared with the average stated in the British Museum Catalogue, 

 where a very large male specimen from India is noticed which had 

 a tarsus measuring 8*25 inches, whilst the smallest, a female, also 

 from India, had one of only 5*25 inches. 



Distribution. The Great White Egret is found throughout 

 Southern and South-eastern Europe, and Southern Asia as far as 

 Burma and Ceylon, and is a straggler to Northern Europe and 

 Great Britain ; it is also found throughout Africa and Madagascar. 

 5 VOL. iv. 



