THE LITTLE YELLOW-BILLED WHITE HERON. 249 



614. HERODIAS EULOPHOTES. 

 THE LITTLE YELLOW-BILLED WHITE HERON. 



Herodias eulophotes, Swnh. Ibis, 1860, p. 64; Bl Ibis, 1865, p. 37 ; Bl B. Burm. 

 p. 169 ; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 441 ; Hume $ Dav. 8. F. vi. pp. 478, 480 ; 

 Hume, S. F. viii. p. 114. 



Description. Male in May (Swinhoe collection). The whole plumage 

 white ; a crest of numerous straight feathers four inches in length ; a train 

 of feathers springing from the back and not exceeding the tail ; feathers 

 of the breast about 3 inches long ; bill entirely yellow ; legs and toes 

 black. Length of skin 20 inches, tail 3*1, wing 9'3, tarsus 2'9, bill from 

 gape 3-8. 



Another specimen unsexed and without date is in exactly the same 

 plumage and has the bill entirely yellow ; it measures length of skin 22 

 inches, tail 3'7, wing 10' 1, tarsus 3'6, bill 3'9. 



A young bird (male, Ningpo, Sept. 22) has no crest and no train either 

 on the breast or back; the basal two thirds of the lower mandible and the 

 margins of the basal half of the upper are yellow, remainder of the bill 

 black ; toes yellowish above. 



Mr. Swinhoe gives the length of the bird as 27 inches; but I do not 

 think that any one of the three specimens, the measurements of which 

 in the skin are given above, could ever have measured this length in the 

 flesh. 



In breeding-plumage this species may be distinguished from the preceding 

 by the character of the crest and by the bill being yellow instead of black. 

 At other times when the crest is absent the identification will be difficult ; 

 but I think that in H. eulophotes the bill will always be found to be more 

 or less yellow over the greater portion of the lower mandible, whereas in 

 H. garzetta merely the base is yellow, and the tarsus also appears to be 

 always much shorter. 



The Little Yellow-billed White Heron is stated by Mr. Blyth to have 

 occurred at Mergui in Tenasserim ; and Mr. Davison procured at Amherst, 

 in the same Division, a specimen of a small white Heron which Mr. Hume 

 identifies with the present species. I think it visits Southern Pegu in the 

 winter, but I am not certain of the fact. 



Mr. Hume mentions another bird shot at the Andamans which he is 

 inclined to assign to this species, and, judging from the colour of the bill 

 as described by him, correctly so. 



This species inhabits Formosa and the south of China. Mr. Blyth many 

 years ago identified H. immaculata from Australia with the Chinese bird; 

 but, judging from Mr. Gould's plate, in which the bird is represented with 

 a black bill, I am inclined to doubt the accuracy of this identification. 



