ARDEID^J BUTOBIDES 81 



extending forwards over the lower part of the face and back- 

 wards over the greater part of the lower surface, except a line 

 down the centre of the breast, which is strongly tinged with rufous ; 

 chin, centre of the throat and fore neck white, mottled with tawny 

 rufous, mottling continuous with the entirely rufous central streak 

 on the breast. 



Iris yellow, bare skin round the eye light yellow; upper mandible 

 dusky, lower one the same but with a little yellow along the lower 

 margin ; legs and feet dusky above, yellow below. 



Length about 16; wing 7-25; tail 2-60; culmen 2-30; tarsus 

 2-0 ; middle toe and claw 2-0. The female resembles the male. 



A young bird is dark brown above, most of the feathers, 

 especially of the wings, tipped with white ; the crown is already 

 greenish in an example in the South African Museum ; below the 

 throat is white, spotted and streaked with huffish and brown, the 

 rest of the lower surface is streaked with black, white, and buffish 

 white. 



Distribution. The Green-backed Heron is found throughout 

 the greater part of Africa, including Madagascar, Mauritius and 

 Rodriguez, from the Gambia and the White Nile southwards. 

 Within our limits it occurs only in the extreme eastern portion of 

 the Colony, but is generally distributed in the low country of Natal, 

 the Transvaal and Rhodesia up to the Zambesi. 



The following are recorded localities : Cape Colony near King 

 Williams Town, rare (Trevelyan), Port St. John's, May (Shortridge, 

 in S. A. Mus.) ; Natal Durban Harbour (Ayres), Tugela River 

 (Bt. Mus.), Victoria county, and Ivuna River in Zululand (Wood- 

 ward) ; Transvaal Marico river, August, and Hex river, December, 

 in Rustenburg (Ayres) ; Pienaars River bridge in Pretoria distr., April 

 and May (Penther), Rooirand in Zoutspansberg distr., June (W. 

 Ayres), Silati railway in Lydenburg, August (Francis) ; Bechuana- 

 land Ngami distr. (Audersson), Nocana, on the Okavango River, 

 July (Fleck) ; Rhodesia Umfuli, September, and Quae-quae Rivers, 

 October (Ayres), Makalaka country (Bt. Mus.), Upper Zambesi 

 near Victoria Falls (W. L. Sclater) ; Portuguese East Africa 

 Zumbo, on the Zambesi, November (Alexander). 



Habits. This Heron is a solitary and retiring bird, generally to 

 be met with along the banks of rivers where there is plenty of bush 

 or among the Mangrove swamps, such as are to be found in Durban 

 Harbour; here it is sometimes to be seen perched on a branch 

 overhanging the water, from which, if disturbed, it soon alights again 

 6 VOL. iv. 



