and Rectifications of Synonymy. 37 



before the train is shed ; so that both black-billed and yellow- 

 billed individuals may be obtained with or without the dorsal 

 train^ and others with the bill changing colour in all stages of 

 progress, — the same remarks applying to the next species. In 

 H. alba (modesta) the loral skin becomes of a bright verditer 

 colour during the breeding-season. More or less of the upper 

 part of the bare portion of the tibia is always whitish. 



H. plumifera, Gould, is H. egrettoides (S. Gm., nee Temm.), 

 figured in the ' Fauna Japonica/ H. intermedia (Wagler) of my 

 catalogue, and Ardea garzetta apud Sykes ; only that the upper 

 portion of the naked tibia is never whitish in the Indian bird, 

 as represented by Mr. Gould, nor was it so in some Australian 

 specimens which I have examined. In this species the bill is 

 comparatively short; there is no occipital crest, but pendent 

 neck-plumes over the breast, of similar open texture to those of 

 the train, which last are very long and quite straight, passing- 

 far beyond the tail-tip, and never curling up at the extremity as 

 in H. garzetta (L.). This and the preceding species are highly 

 gregarious, commonly associating in the same great tlock ; but 

 I observed only the present one in Burma : at Rangoon there is 

 a considerable colony of H. egrettoides, and many may commonly 

 be seen there in open places within the confines of the town, 

 being hardly less familiar than H. garzetta is in India. 



H. immaculata, Gould, is H. eulophotes, Swinhoe, and H. me- 

 lanopus (Wagler) apud nos (Journ. As. Soc. vol. xxii. p. 437). 

 It occurs in the southern Tenasserim province of Mergui, being 

 rather smaller than H. garzetta, with much shorter toes, the 

 dorsal train short and straight, or showing but the slightest 

 tendency to recurve, and not passing beyond the tail-tip. 

 Occipital crest consisting of a longitudinal series of nume- 

 rous lengthened slender plumes, similar to the two or three 

 composing the crest of H. garzetta, but not so long, the longest 

 measuring about 3^ inches. Pendent breast-plumes as in H. 

 garzetta. Beak from forehead 3^ in. ; tarsi 3^ in.; middle toe 

 and claw 2^ in. ; hind toe and claw 1 in.; closed wing 10 in. 

 The foregoing description is from a Mergui specimen ; and Aus- 

 tralian examples quite agree. In the ' Ibis ^ (1861, p. 345) Capfc. 

 Irby notices this species in Oude, remarking that ^' the breast- 



