474 



BIRDS €>F TENASSERIM. 



may run down the sides of the tarsi as some of my specimens; 

 seem to show, but I cannot remember to have observed this, and 

 it is not recorded in the ease of any of the specimens of which 

 I have recorded the color of the soft parts. 



But knowing, as I do, that the color of the tibia varies accord- 

 ing to the breeding season, and apprehending- that the colors 

 given by Schlegel have been mostly taken from dry skins, I 

 do not attach much importance to his remarks on this point as 

 availing to separate the larger and the smaller forms. 



It remains therefore a question of dimensions solely, and in 

 India we do appear to have two different sizes of the larger 

 white Heron, a difference in no way connected with sex. 



The larger of these two races is, I apprehend, rare in India, and 

 may be confined to Northern and Western India. I have not 

 hitherto paid the attention that I should to this group, and my 

 museum contains only a single specimen of it obtained at Delhi 

 on the 28th April by Captain Bingham who measured it, and 

 recorded the colors of the soft parts from the fresh bird. 



But though I have only a single specimen, I know that I have 

 continually, during the last five and twenty years, come across 

 small parties and individuals of this larger race, and I have 

 little doubt myself that this is identical with the true alba. 1 

 contrast below the dimensions given by Schlegel for males and 

 females of this species with the dimensions of our bird a male. 



These dimensions, it will be seen, agree very fairly, especially 

 when it is noted that Schlegel apparently only took his dimen- 

 sions from four specimens, and these dimensions very far 

 exceed those of any specimens of the present species torra 

 obtained by us, in any part of India, Burmah, or the An damans. 



I propose to ' subjoin the measurements of a number of 

 Indian specimens, contrasting them with both Wagler and 

 Schlegel's dimensions oiegretta, together with the dimensions 

 of specimens obtained in Tenasserim, which will show, 1st, 

 that these latter are not separable from our Indian torra ; 2nd, 

 that, as far as dimensions go, torra must be tolerably near to, 

 if not identical with, egretta ; and, 3rd, that our larger Indian 

 race, even if not true alba, is quite distinct from the smaller 

 race, that for the present I call torra, and equally so from 

 egretta if that is distinct from this latter. 



