304 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



mangrove swamps, where these have been only partially 

 reclaimed. At Phoenix Bay I have frequently observed them in 

 parties of ten or more, but they were nowhere very numerous." 



927.— Herodias garzetta, Lin. (3.) 



The Andaman specimens, for of these also we preserved none 

 from the Nicobars, are precisely identical with the Indian bird, 

 and are not, as might have been expected, Herodias melanopus, 

 Wagler, which more or less replaces garzetta in Tenasserim and 

 the Malayan Peninsular, and which thence extends throughout 

 the Archipelago to Northern Australia. This latter species may 

 be distinguished by its somewhat smaller size and much shorter 

 feet. 



Davison says : — " Found in the same situation as the preced- 

 ing, the two often associating together. I did not obtain speci- 

 mens of this or the preceding at the Nicobars, but often noticed 

 white egrets about the coast and mangrove swamps, and on the 

 banks of the river at- Galatea Bay. These were, however, not 

 improbably the white form of sacra" 



928 Us.— Demi-egretta sacra, Gmel. (39.) 2 



white. 



We paid particular attention to this species, and pre- 

 served numerous specimens from the following localities : — 

 Preparis, Great Cocos, Little Cocos, South Button, Port Blair, 

 Camorta, Trinkut, Nancowry, Katchall, Teressa, Bompoka, Pilu 

 Milu, Great Nicobars, besides which seven more were sent us 

 subsequently from the neighbourhood of Port Blair, and We 

 saw them on every single island in the whole of the three 

 groups, and on Barren Island and Narcondam, and I think we 

 are in a position to assert positively that there is only one species 

 of the Blue Reef-heron throughout the whole of the islands of 

 the Bay of Bengal, and that this species is identical with that 

 which occurs in Arakan and along the Burmese Coast generally. 

 Von Pelzeln separates three specimens from the Nicobars (Novara 

 Reise, Vogel, p. 123,) on account of their u smaller size, shorter 

 bills, and shorter tarsi ;" but these distinctions will not hold 

 good under any circumstances. The dimensions he gives 

 are in no way smaller than those of many of our specimens, 

 and not so small by any means as some of ours, and between 

 these smallest and the very largest every intermediate dimension 

 occurs. 



This species is no doubt very variable alike in size and in 

 plumage, even supposing that the white race, of which I shall 



