76 ARDEID.E ARDEOLA 



Description. Adult Male in breeding season. Head and neck all 

 round, including the plumes at the side of the chest, pale buffy- 

 yellow, strongly striped with blackish-brown ; a well-developed 

 nuchal crest of narrow pointed feathers, white, bordered on either 

 side by blackish-brown, the tips white ; mantle vinous-red, scapulars 

 brownish - buff, both breaking up into ornamental decomposed 

 plumes ; "rump, upper tail-coverts, tail and wings W 7 hite, the coverts 

 of the latter washed here and there with buff, and some of the inner 

 secondaries like the scapulars; below, except for the middle and 

 lower part of the neck and upper breast, white throughout. 



Iris pale yellow ; bare skin round the eye pale yellow ; upper 

 mandible dusky greenish-yellow along the commissure near the base ; 

 lower mandible greenish-yellow; legs and feet greenish- yellow, a 

 little darker on the toes. 



Length (in flesh) 17 to 18; wing 8'75 ; tail 3-4 ; culmen 2-5; 

 tarsus 2-25 ; middle toe 2-5. 



The female is generally slightly smaller (wing 7'75), the nuchal 

 crest and dorsal trains are also less developed. The adult in winter 

 plumage has no long nape plumes, the crest feathers are shorter and 

 the back loses its vinous colour and is brown like the scapulars. 



Young birds can be distinguished by the black shafts of the 

 outer primaries, while the outer webs and tips are slightly washed 

 with brown ; the vinous colour of the centre of the back is replaced 

 by a buffish-brown like that of the scapulars. 



Distribution. The Squacco is a summer visitor in the South of 

 Europe, ranging from Spain to the Caspian Sea ; it occasionally 

 reaches the British Islands as a straggler. Throughout Africa 

 (including Madagascar) it is a resident. 



In South Africa the Squacco is fairly abundant where suitable 

 conditions exist, but it does not appear to have been met with in the 

 central and western districts of Cape Colony. Though it is 

 apparently a resident, its nesting habits (in South Africa) have 

 not been described. 



The following are localities : Cape Colony near Upington, 

 December (Bradshaw), Colesberg, in winter (Arnot), Grahamstown 

 (Albany Museum), near King Williams Town, rare (Trevelyan) ; 

 Basutoland summer (Bowker) ; Natal rare (Ayres) ; Transvaal 

 Potchefstroom, January, August, October, November (Ayres), 

 Limpopo Kiver (Holub) ; Bechuanaland Bamangwato, August 

 (Buckley), Lake Ngami district (Andersson) ; Ehodesia Upper 

 Zambesi (Holub) ; German South-west Africa common throughout 



