476 



BRITISH BIRDS. 



being more essentially a marsh-bird, its toes and claws are much longer than 

 those of its ally, approaching the Rails in this respect. In its general 

 style of coloration it resembles the Common Heron ; but differs from it in 

 having the forehead and crown black instead of white ; the dorsal plumes, 

 which are white in the Common Heron, are chestnut ; on each side of 

 the neck and halfway down its back, connected by a band across the ear- 

 coverts, are black longitudinal stripes ; and the ground-colour of the sides 

 of the neck and underparts below the throat are pale chestnut. Many of the 

 under wing-coverts are chestnut, the sides of the breast are reddish chest- 

 nut, and the white of the belly and thighs is represented by chestnut, and 

 that of the under tail-coverts by black and white. Bill, legs, feet, claws, 

 and irides the same as in the Common Heron. The female resembles the 

 male, except that all the colours are duller, and the crest-feathers and 

 dorsal plumes are much less developed. In the young in first plumage 

 the crest-feathers and the elongated feathers of the neck and back are 

 absent. The black stripes on the neck, breast, and belly are only repre- 

 sented by obscure dark centres to the feathers, and all the small feathers 

 of the upper parts have broad chestnut margins. After the first moult, 

 which is completed when the bird is scarcely a year old, the intermediate 

 plumage of birds of the year is assumed * . 



* There can be little doubt that Dresser has mistranslated Naumann when he states 

 that the full plumage of the Purple Heron is not assumed until the bird is three years 

 old. The progress of these birds towards maturity appears to be as follows : 1880-birds 

 (for example) are born in July ; at the end of the same year they begin their first moult, 

 which is completed in March 1881 ; during the following autumn they moult into nearly 

 adult plumage, which they complete in March 1882 that is to say, in the third year 

 during which they have lived, though they are only twenty months old, and not three 

 j r ears, as erroneously stated by Dresser. 



