386 ABDEIDJE. 



Herodias alba, Blyth, Cat. p. 279 ; Jerdon, B. I. iii, p. 744 : Blyth, 

 Ibis, 1865, p. 36 ; Hume, S. F. i, p. 253 ; Butler, S. F. iv, p. 23 ; 

 Gates, S. F. v, p. 167 ; Hume, Cat. no. 924 bis ; Scully, S. F. viii, 

 p. 360 ; Legge, Birds Ceyl. p. 1138 ; Reid, S. F. x, p. 75 ; Oates, 

 B. B. ii, p. 246 ; id. in Hume's N. $ E. 2nd ed. iii, p. 237 ; Sharpe, 

 Cat. B. M. xxvi, p. 90. 



Herodias egretta, Hume, S. F. v, p. 347. 



Herodias torra, Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi, p. 472 ; Ball, S. F. vii, p. 230 ; 

 Hume, Cat. no. 925 ; Scully, S. F. viii, p. 360 ; Doig, ibid. p. 372 ; 

 Tidal, S. F. ix, p. 88 ; Butler, ibid. p. 433 ; Barnes, Birds Bom. 

 p. 379 ; Hume $ Cripps, S. F. xi, p. 332 ; Barnes, Jour. Bom. N. 

 H. Soc. vi, p. 143. 



Mallany bayla, Torra-bayla, Tar-bayla, Bara-baola, H. ; Dhar-boyla, 

 Beng. ; Pedda-tella-konya, Tel. ; Mala-konya, Gond ; Vella koku, Tarn. ; 

 (Ceylon) ; Baddadel-koka, Cing. 



Coloration. Pure white. In the breeding-season a train of long 

 ornamental feathers with fine separate and distant barbs springs 

 from the back and extends 4 or 5 inches beyond the tail ; no crest 

 or breast-plumes. The train is dropped after the breeding-season. 



In the breeding-season, the bill is black, orbital skin bright green, 

 iris yellow, legs and feet black, soles yellowish, naked part of tibia 

 bluish black. At other seasons the bill is yellow, orbital skin 

 greenish yellow, tibia dull greenish (Oates). 



Dimensions vary greatly. An average specimen measures : 

 length about 36, tail 5'5, wing 14-5, tarsus 6, bill from gape 5'5. 

 The wing, however, varies from 13 to 17 and the tarsus from 5'25 

 to 8*5 ; birds from the north, as usual, being larger than those which 

 breed to the southward. Hume and other naturalists thought that 

 two different species, a larger and a smaller, occurred in India, 

 but it is impossible to distinguish them. 



Distribution. The warmer parts of Europe and Asia as far east 

 as Burma, with the whole of Africa ; allied species or races replacing 

 H. alba in Eastern Asia and Australia and in America. This 

 Egret is found throughout India, Ceylon, and Burma. 



Habits, 6fc. The Large Egret is rather more solitary in general 

 than the smaller species, but it frequently associates with them. 

 It breeds in Northern India and in Burma about July and August, 

 but in the Carnatic and Ceylon, where the rains fall and the 

 country is flooded during the north-east monsoon, all Herons 

 breed from December to February. This species lays generally 3, 

 occasionally 4, bluish-green eggs measuring on an average 2-11 by 

 1-55. 



1560. Herodias intermedia. The Smaller Egret. 



Ardea intermedia, Wagler, Isis, 1829, p. 659 ; Hume, N. $ E. p. 615. 

 Ai-dea egrettoides, apud Temm. Man. d'Orn. ed. 2, iv, p. 374 (1840), 



nee Gmel. 

 Herodias intermedia, Blyth, Cat. p. 279 ; Stoliczka, J. A. S. B. xli, 



pt. 2, p. 254 : Hume, S. F. i, p. 253 ; Adam, ibid. p. 399 ; Hume, S. F. 



ii, p. 303 ; Walden, Ibis, 1874, p. 148 ; Hume, S. F. iv, p. 23 ; 



Hume $ Dav. S. F. vi, p. 476 ; Ball, S. F. vii, p. 230 ; Hume, Cat. 



jjo. 926; Doi(j,S.F. viii, p. 372; Leyye, Birds Ceyl. p. 1141; 



Butler, S. F. ix, p. 433 j Reid, S. F x,'p. 75 j Davidson, ibid. p. 323 ; 



