BIRDS OF TENASSEItlM. 473 



Of the first (alba) he says : " Easily distinguished from 

 the two other species* of the sub-di vision by its great size. 

 Legs yellow, passing often to black on the toes, or on the toes 

 and on a part, or the whole of the tarsus, or even on the legs 

 throughout, except quite on the upper part ; bill yellow ; passing 

 often according to iudividuals from the point backwards, more 

 or less to black, and this color sometimes extending over the 

 whole beak, except at its base. Feathers of the breast- normal." 



And he gives dimensions of this species, which I shall quote 

 further on. 



Of his egretta he says : — 



" Like alba, but constantly smaller ; no difference in size or 

 in the proportions of the parts, or even in the length of the train 

 between specimens from the New and Old World. Leo-s 

 black, inclining more or less to brown, sometimes to a lio-ht 

 reddish brown, or even on the tibia to a yellowish brown ; bill 

 yellow, but this color passes probably with age to black, or dark 

 brown, a color which commences by showing itself at the point 

 of the beak, whence it spreads by degrees over the whole of this 

 organ/* 



And he gives dimensions of this species also, which I shall 

 also reproduce further on. 



Now, of course, the coloring of the bill on which Schlegel lays 

 some little stress, merely depends upon the season. Bills of adult 

 birds killed in the breeding season are black, in the winter are 

 yellow. As a rule, all birds killed in June have the bills black, 

 and have a full train, but I have one specimen, however, killed at 

 that season, in which the bill is still yellow, and only one or two 

 of the feathers of the train developed; this I take to be a bird of 

 the previous year that would not breed. Birds killed in April 

 still have the bills yellow. Again, birds killed towards the 

 end of August begin to show the change of color ; there is a 

 yellowish white patch on the culmen and in front of the nos- 

 trils, and a yellowish tinge along the rami of the lower man- 

 dible, and the black of the rest of the bill has everywhere faded 

 to a more or less dark brown except at the extreme tip. 



Beyond difference in dimensions therefore there is nothing in 

 Schlegel's diagnosis left to guide us, except differences in°the 

 coloration of the feet which, as will have been seen above are 

 rather vaguely stated by the learned professor. 



I cannot remember even having seen a specimen of the lar- 

 ger white Heron in India which had the tarsi and feet other 

 than black, but the color of the tibia is like that of the bill de- 

 pendent on the season ; when the bills are black, i. e. } in the 

 breeding season, the tibia are reddish or fleshy brown, some- 

 times with a tinge of orange, and perhaps this' color at times 



* The second species to which he refers is intermedia of Yon Hasselt apud Watrler 

 Isis, 1829, 659. 8 ' 



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