ABDEID^ NYCTICOBAX 85 



tember 9th, 1896, and gives the following account of it: "In a small 

 group of dead willows in a wide part of the river above the farm 

 were numerous nests of this bird, as also of the Snake Bird (Plotus 

 riifus), the little River Duiker (Phalacrocorax africanus), and the 

 Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea). The nests were deep platforms of dead 

 sticks averaging one foot nine inches .across and from six to nine 

 inches deep, placed in the fork of a bough, about five or six feet 

 above the water. The birds sat until I was fifteen or twenty yards 

 off, and returned to their nests almost as soon as I departed. The 

 nests had no lining beyond the sticks of which they were built. The 

 red irides of the bird were very conspicuous. Three clutches were 

 taken, two of three, and one of two eggs each, all were quite fresh." 

 These eggs are now in the South African Museum and vary slightly 

 in shape and colour, but are all of shades of pale greenish-blue like 

 those of other Herons ; they measure on an average 1'85 x 1'40. 



A. 



599. Nycticorax leuconotus. White-backed Night Heron. 



Ardea leuconota, Wagl. Syst. Av. Ardea, p. 189 (1827). 



Ardea cucullata, WagL, Isis, 1829 p. 661. 



Calherodius cucullatus, Layard, Ibis, 1870, p. 443. 



Nycticorax leuconotus, Cab., in Von der Decken Eeis. iii, p. 50, pi. 

 xviii (1870) ; Sharpe, ed. Layard' sB. S. Afr. p. 724 (1884) ; Ayres, Ibis, 

 1885, p. 349 ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 158 (1896) ;*Sharpe, Cat. B. M. 

 xxvi, p. 157 (1898) ; Reichenow, Vog. Afr. i, p. 363 (1902). 



Description. Adult. General colour above black, the long 

 scapular plumes white, the outer ones white along the inner webs, 

 and continuous with a white patch on the upper back, rest of the 

 back dusky slate with a greenish shade, lesser wing-coverts washed 

 with rufous-brown ; crown crested, black with elongated nape- 

 plumes ; lores white, extending above the eye, as also a small patch 

 below the latter ; cheeks, ear-coverts, and sides of face, black ; 

 upper throat white, lower throat and neck all round bright orange 

 chestnut ; a line of black feathers down the hind neck to the mantle ; 

 down the centre of the foreneck and breast a few dusky brown 

 feathers, white on the outer web, giving a streaked appearance ; 

 sides of the body, flanks, thighs, under wing-coverts and axillaries 

 vinaceous slightly streaked with white. 



Iris fiery yellow ; lores and orbits bare and greenish-yellow ; 

 bill blackish, yellowish towards the base ; feet orange. 



Length about 20 ; wing 10-2 : tail 4-1 ; culmen 2-6; tarsus 2-8. 



