472 BIRDS OF TENASSER1M. 



of Nat. Hist : and if so, his name -would stand, but I have 

 not these works to refer to now, and cannot therefore be certain. 

 Jerdon only described a young bird of this species (insignis), 

 and I may mention that in the adult the elongated neck hackles, 

 all round the base of the neck before and behind, have the termi- 

 nal portions pure white, or at any rate centred pure white ; that 

 the entire breast, abdomen, vent, lower tail-coverts, wing-lining, 

 and axillaries, and the whole lower back (except a narrow band 

 down the centre) are pure white, and that in the adults there is 

 a strong greenish . shade all over the interscapulary region, 

 coverts, and tertials, which latter are only feebly, grey centred 

 and tipped. 



923.— Ardea cinerea, Lin. (7). 



Thatone ; Pakchan. 



[I saw a few specimens of this Heron about the Pakchan near 

 Nalansine. I did not observe it elsewhere in the province. The 

 few observed were very shy. — W. D.J 



Mr. Davis, however, found it not uncommon during the rainy 

 season at Thatone. 



924.— Ardea purpurea, Lin. (9). 



Thatone ; Khyketo ; Tavoy. 



Very sparingly distributed throughout the plains portions of 

 the province. 



925. — Herodias torra, Buck. Hamilton. (10). 



Kedia Keglay ; Thatone ; Amherst ; Yea ; Crab Island. 



Generally distributed throughout the plains portion of the 

 province. 



I enter all our specimens as torra of Buchanan Hamilton, be- 

 cause we are pretty sure that this was the name applied to the 

 large white Heron which is most common throughout India. 

 Whether or no this is the true egretta of Gmelin, or whether, 

 if not any other name should have priority over Buchanan 

 Hamilton's, I am unable at present to determine. Bonaparte's 

 synopsis of this group of species is absolutely useless, as he 

 has placed birds with yellow, and with black bills, differences 

 merely due to season, into different sub-divisions, giving us thus 

 each species at least twice over. 



Schlegel (Mus. Pays. Bas. Ardese, 16) gives us only two spe- 

 cies of the larger white Heron ; the first, alba, of Linnseus, 

 from the south-east of Europe, the neighbouring parts of Asia 

 and Northern Africa ; the second, egretta of Gmelin aud Wagner, 

 (but not of Nordman, Bechstein, or Temminck,) from the 

 warmer parts of America, from Africa, Asia, the Indian 

 Archipelago and New Holland. 



