38 Mr. Blyth — A few Identifications 



plumes in the breeding-plumage are few in number, but thick 

 in texture, and [similar plumes are] scattered down the neck 

 [nape] , not springing from one place as in H. garzetta." It is 

 necessary to interpolate the passage as above. 



H, pannosa, Gould, I take to be Ardea asha, Sykes, of South 

 India and Ceylon, if not also A. gularis of Riippell ; but A. gularis 

 of Raffles's drawings, from Sumatra, is a species also inhabiting 

 the Nicobar Islands and Arakan, which I have named H. concolor. 



Ardea melanolopha, Raffles, from Sumatra, is the young of a 

 peculiar species, which I have also seen from Malacca, Arakan, 

 Ceylon, and the Philippines. With A. goisagi, T. and S., from 

 Japan, and others, it is one of a peculiar group intermediate to 

 Botawus and Nycticorax ; Gorsachius, Pucheran. These birds 

 have the general character of Botaurms, with the short neck 

 and the short hooked claws of Nycticorax. The adult of G. 

 melanolophus is similar to that of P. goisagi, but has a long 

 black crested pileus at all ages. Closed wing 10 to 10^ in, ; 

 bill 2 in. to forehead; tarsi 2| to 2f in. An unusually 

 small specimen from the Philippines has a proportionally 

 smaller bill, and the general colouring more dusky. Wing 

 9 in. ; bill to forehead 1^ in. ; and tarsi 2^ in. G. goisagi, 

 from Japan, has no black on crest at any age. Wing 10 in. ; 

 bill If in. to forehead; and tarsi 2|in. Specimens of both are 

 in the Derby Museum, Liverpool ; as also of a small third 

 species from South America, the specific name of which I did 

 not make out. 



There are, again, four distinct oriental races of Ardeola : — 

 1 . A. leucoptera, of India and Burma, of which A. grayi (Hardw., 

 ' 111. Ind. Zool.^) represents the summer dress; 2. A. speciosa, 

 Horsf., of Java; 3. A. malaccensis, of the Malayan peninsula 

 and Sumatra, which is intermediate to the two preceding ; and 4. 

 A. prasinosceles, Swinhoe, of China. In winter dress, all of 

 these, with A. ralloides (v. comata) of Africa chiefly, are barely, 

 and in some instances not at all, distinguishable, though con- 

 spicuously separable when in breeding- costume. 



Dendrocygna vagans, Eyton (Fraser's ' Zoologia Typica ') ; D. 

 gouldi, Bonap. ; Anas javanica, var,, Horsfield (Linn. Trans, vol. 

 xiii. p. 200) ; A. arcuata apud Horsfield, figured in 'Zool. Res. 



