398 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS I ZOOLOGY. 



as far as the tips of the closed wings. Lower back and rump dark slaty 

 grey, shaded somewhat with greenish and shading into the clear bottle- 

 green of the upper tail-coverts. 



Tail : Dull bottle-green, with a slaty cast. 



Wings : Upper wing-coverts dark bottle-green, broadly margined with 

 pale rufous or ochraceous. The quills dark bottle-green, narrowly mar- 

 gined on the exposed edges with creamy white or pale buff. 



Lower parts : Chin, throat and neck as described. The rest of the lower 

 surface slaty grey, becoming whitish on the abdomen. The under surface 

 of the quills, under wing-coverts, axillaries and under tail-coverts pale 

 slaty grey. 



Bill: Upper mandible dusky horn-color. Lower mandible dusky at 

 the edges, shading into greenish yellow at its lower margin and into 

 greenish at base, the bare skin about the eye and the eyelid being grass- 

 green. 



Iris : Varying from pale straw to deep reddish orange. 



Legs : Green, shading into brownish on the front of the tarsus. 



Feet : Green, shading into brownish green on the tops of the toes ; the 

 soles of the feet deep yellow. 



The adult female is like the adult male. 



The winter plumage of adults is but little different from the breeding 

 plumage ; a little duller and with the rufous margins of the feathers of the 

 wings and the rufous of the under neck deeper in tone. 



Young birds of the year are brown above ; no plumes ; the upper wing- 

 coverts with triangular creamy or san dy buff spots at their ends ; the top 

 of the head dusky, the feathers marked with buffy shaft-lines. The sides 

 of head and face and the lower surface dull whitish, streaked by the dusky 

 margins to the feathers. 



Geographical Range. South America. From Colombia to Ecuador 

 and Peru. From Venezuela, Guiana, throughout Brazil and to the Argen- 

 tine Republic, being rare farther south. 



With some hesitation this heron is included in the fauna of Patagonia, as 

 it probably occurs as far south at least as the Rio Negro, though not com- 

 monly. It appears to be very common in the region south of La Plata. 

 It was not procured or noticed by the naturalists of the Princeton Expe- 

 ditions, but Mr. Hatcher has told of seeing a small heron which was not 

 secured. From his description it was probably this species. 



