544 Mr. Torn Iredale on 



solitary species." The coloration o£ soft parts is given 

 as : — " Legs greenish black ; feet olive-brown, patched in 

 places with yellow. Bill orange-yellow, becoming flesh- 

 coloured and purplish ou the lores and round the eye. 

 Irides pearl-white." 



In ' The Ibis/ 1863, p. 418, Swinhoe recorded it as 

 ^'pretty common" in Formosa, where it appeared to breed 

 in company with other Herons, noting: — "The female is a 

 little larger, but the sexes are not otherwise to be dis- 

 tinguished. This Egret has a fine clear yellow bill in 

 summer, becoming tinged with brown in winter. Its cere 

 is tinged with green and purple ; its irides light pearly 

 yellow. Its legs are in summer black, in winter greenish 

 brown : its feet and claws are greenish yellow. From 

 H. garzetta it can at all seasons be distinguished by its 

 light and shorter bill, and by its much shorter legs. It 

 loses its crest early in August.'" 



Blyth (Ibis, 1865, p. 37) synonymised Gould's H. im- 

 maculata with H. eulopliotes Swinhoe, and described a bird 

 killed at Mergui in South Tenasseritn. The description 

 of the crest reads like that of this species, but the note 

 "^Australian examples quite agree'' cannot refer to crested 

 examples, as no crested Australian specimen was then 

 known. 



Meyer and Wiglesworth reinstated this species under 

 the name Herodias eulophotes, and gave a coloured plate. 

 As a vernacular they proposed Short-legged White Egret. 

 They gave a full review of the accounts of this bird, and 

 were inclined to follow Blyth in accepting Gould's H. im- 

 maculata as a synonym. Their remarks were based upon a 

 specimen procured at Mantehage Island in April in full 

 breeding plumage, and another immature obtained by the 

 cousins Sarasiu in October. They still retained the species 

 in Herodias, considering the differences in the bill, wing- 

 formation, leg-length, and breeding ornaments as of less 

 value than the white coloration, a view still endorsed by 

 some workers. 



