308 Additional remarJcs on the Avifmma of, 8fc. 



white allotropic form of jiigularis, Fors.^ or as Mr. Gray gives 

 it, sacra, Gm. This form has been said to be the young- of this 

 latter, but Col. Tytler took numbers of young sacra=^jngidaris=z 

 concolor, Blyth, from the nest and kept them for months and 

 assured me that they were slaty dusky ab ova. 



The bird is usually mistaken, I believe, for garzetta or 

 egrettoides, but the bill is stouter and deeper, especially towards 

 the points, and the tarsi are only three inches in length. In 

 fact it is a pure white facsimile of sacra. Is it a distinct 

 species ? It is not a mere accidental variety, or albino, or any- 

 thing of that kind, for it appears to be quite as numerous, if 

 not more so than the dark form. 



The little heronet which I have called sinensis, may be 

 possibly a new species and might be characterized thus : 



Ver// like A. sinensis, Gm., h'lt slightly smaller ; the whole hack, 

 scajmlars, and tertiaries, deep cinnamon rufous^ edged with golden 

 huff and the whole chin and throat pure lohite, with a narrow well 

 defined central golden huff streak and a broad dark brown pectoral 

 hand. 



But is it really distinct from sinensis ? It is certainly an 

 intensely brightly coloured version of that species, with a 

 strongly defined central throat stripe and a broad band of the 

 deepest brown feathers from the sides of the breast across the 

 npper abdomen. It is in some respects affined to clnnarnomea, 

 Gmel., but is if anything smaller than sinensis even. Looking 

 to the eaireme improbability of getting a new species of this 

 genus from the Andamans when sinensis extends from Southern 

 India to the Ladrones, I have identified it with this latter species ; 

 but the colours of the upper parts, to say nothing of other 

 differences, will not agree with those of any specimens of sinensis 

 that I have seen. Jerdon says of this latter species, "back and 

 scapulars, pale earthy or sandy brown ; wing coverts and 

 tertiaries, pale isabelline fulvous." Schlegel says, " le male adulte 

 a le dos et les scapulaires, d^un brun-rougeatre ;tirant au gris" 

 and these two descriptions seem to me to cover all the variations 

 in plumage that I have yet met with in sinensis. I assume for 

 the present that it is a young freshly moulted bird of this 

 species (which I have but seldom shot and with whose variations 

 in plumage I am therefore less familiar) but if so, the stage of 

 plumage it exhibits is one wortln^ of record. 



Length, about 13 ; wing, 5-1 ; bill at front, 2*1 ; tarsus, 1-7. 

 The whole top of the head, back of the neck, back scapulars, 

 tertiaries, and the lessor coverts along the ulna and about 

 the carpal joint of the 'R'^ng, deep cinnamon rufous ; the fea- 

 thers of the crown, centred darker, and a small short occipi- 



