542 Mr. Tom Iredale on 



Zealand being one, the wliite birds are absent. In other 

 places white birds may occur alone^ and the bird under 

 notice was so classed in the Catalogue of Birds. At first 

 sight to Mathews and myself it differed appreciably, and 

 we dismissed it as a distinct species and not a subspecific 

 form of Demigretta sacra. 



Mathews {loc. cit. p. 448) has also distinguished it as 

 separable from the genus Demigretta and proposed for it 

 the generic name Hemigarzetta, writing : — 



" It {Herodias eulophotes Swinhoe, Ibis, 1860, p. 64) recalls 

 Egretta almost as much as Demigretta. The bill is long 

 and slender, but does not exceed the metatarsus in length : 

 the head is very fully crested with very much developed 

 plumes : the dorsal ornamentation reaches beyond the tail 

 and consists of disintegrated featheis: the breast plumes are 

 lanceolate, but are longer than in Demigretta, and much 

 more pronounced ; the wing has the first three primaries 

 subequal, the first primary longest, which never occurs in 

 Demigretta. The legs are short with exposed tibia, also shorty 

 as are also the toes. The short legs and feet place it near 

 Demigretta, as Egretta has long legs and feet. The frontal 

 covering of the metatarsus consists of transverse scutes as 

 in Demigretta as well as Egretta.'^ 



I now find that Mathews had overlooked a paper by C. B. 

 Eickett in 'The Ibis,' 1903, pp. 220-1, where careful com- 

 parisons were made and Herodias eutophoieswas shown to be 

 distinct from Demigretta sacra, but the species was retained 

 in Herodias, Bickett noting, " In habits H. eulophvtes is an 

 Egret. It frequents rice-fields, or the sides of inland ponds 

 and creeks, and often nests on the same trees as H.garzetta. 

 My collectors have never met with it on the coast. '^ This 

 confirmation of Mathews's investigations is pleasing, and the 

 generic location is the only problem. Genus-lumpers will 

 probably include it in Egretta, considering the white 

 plumage, though ostensibly ignoring coloration, as a valu- 

 able character. It cannot remain in Herodias, however, 

 as the white plumage must be suboidina'ed to the great 

 difference in structure. 



