10 



Gallinago megala Swinh. 



One specimen of Swinhoe's snipe was taken at Balete on April 

 27, 1905. 



Dissoura episcopus (Bodd.). 



During our first visit to Calapan in December, 1902, this adjutant 

 was abundant in the rice fields back of town, and although I 

 attempted to secure specimens, my No. 5 shot seemed to have no 

 effect whatever. At Balete we killed two along the margins of the 

 river, where they were found searching for food. This bird is the 

 most deliberate in its movements of any I have ever seen. It 

 takes flight with ease, either from the ground or from a perch on a 

 high tree. So slow is the motion of the wings that it would seem 

 almost impossible for the bird to maintain itself in the air. In 

 this species, the under side of the fore arm is bare and decorated 

 with a wide line of dark crimson. 



After having examined two specimens of this species, I am certain 

 that the bird we saw in Calayan was Dissoura episcopus, although 

 at the time I was obliged to record it from that island with doubt. 1 



Nycticorax manillensis Vig. 



Two female night herons in adult plumage do not agree with 

 the description of N. mallinensis as given in the Catalogue of Birds. 

 The most obvious discrepancy is in regard to the nuchal plumes 

 and the line over eye. Sharpe 2 says: "Crown of head and crest 

 feathers, including the long nuchal plumes, greenish black, ex- 

 tending down the hind neck on to the mantle; no white eyebrow." 

 Tweeddale 3 says of a male taken in Leyte: "The lengthened occip- 

 ital plumes are black throughout their length and not only at their 

 tips, as described by Vigors and figured by Fraser." 



In an adult female (Chicago, Mindoro, March 21, 1905) the 

 occipital plumes are nearly 7 inches in length and are white, with 

 the tips and shafts blackish brown with a line of brown along each 

 side of the basal third of the shaft. Likewise there is a very evident 

 "eyebrow," a narrow line of white mixed with cinnamon, which 

 extends from the base of the bill, over the eye nearly to the hind 

 border. The crown and crest feathers are blue black, not "green- 

 ish black." Another female from the same locality, collected 



1 Bull. Philippine Mus., No. 4, p. 11. 



2 Cat. Bds., XXVI, p. 162. 

 8 P. Z. 8., 1878, p. 345. 



