Birds of Celebes: Ardeidae. 



835 



Sharpe's diagnosis applies equally well to Bubulcus when the birds are not in 

 breeding plumage ') . 



The Lesser Egret seems to be a fresh -water species, as its light structure 

 suggests. Legge describes it as haunting paddy-fields, marshes and flooded lands; 

 it is shy and very silent, and feeds mostly on fish. 



GENUS BUBULCUS Bp. 



The Cattle Egret difi'ers remarkably in habits from the Egrets of the genus 

 Herodias, being chiefly insectivorous in regard to its food; yet it is difficult to 

 point to any strongly pronounced characters wherewith to distinguish it genei-ic- 

 ally as Bubulcus. Its hind toe with the claw is relatively longer than in 

 Hei-odias and Demiegretta ^ being just equal to the inner toe without the claw; 

 its bill is short, one-fourth the length of the wing, rather stout, the cutting edges 

 terminally serrated, the ridge of the gonys about one-fourth the length of the bill 

 from the gape (as against about one-third in Herodias). 



In plumage it is not perfectly white in non-breeding dress, but has the top 

 of the head buff; and in breeding dress the filamentous plumes, besides being 

 golden-tawny in colour, are of a different character from those of Herodias. 



4^355. BUBULCUS COROMANDUS (Bodd.). 



Cattle Egret. 



a. Le Crabier de Coromandel (I) Buff., H. N. Ois. (small fol. ed.) 1783, VUI, 226, pi. 910. 



b. Cancroma coromanda (1) Bodd., Tabl. PL Enl. 17S3, p. 54. 



•) After this aiticle was -nTitten, Dr. Sharpe had the kind courtesy to send iis some of the proof-sheets 

 of his Catalogue of the Herons, wherein he handles this species in a manner differing in many respects fi'om 

 ours. What we, like Legge, Salvadori, and others, regard as one species, Sharpe treats of as three, the 

 birds of the Indian Region being 3Iesophoyx intermedia, those of Afi-ica 31. hrachyrhyncha (Brehm), and those 

 of the Australian Region 31. plumifera (Grid.), the geographical dividing line between the last and the first 

 being assumed to be between Celebes on the one side and Java and the Philippines on the other. We oaimot 

 decide to remodel our work to conform with Dr. Sharpe's touching 31. intermedia anA plumifera. As to 

 whether African indiviiluals are racially distinct or not, we have no opinion, but would only point out that 

 the characters on which 31. brachyrhyncha is upheld are perhaps of a seasonal, evanescent nature: these are 

 the '"yellow" (? yellowish) tibia, a yellow bill and a black patch (in skin; in front of the eye. Now Legge 

 points out [see also oiu- table under Bubulcus coromandus) that the tibiae of Ceylon birds are in breeding 

 plumage yellowish brown (Dr. Sharpe wi-ongly says "entirely black like the tarsi and toes"); and two of our 

 Celebesian specimens with yellow bills have a blackish mai-k on the loral skin (perhaps a result of drying^ also 

 yellowish tibiae, and one is in partial breeding dress — this shoidd be M. brachyrhyncha! In the same way 

 .1/. plumifera is allowed to stand as a good species by reason of its yellow (? yellovrish brown) tibiae and 

 yellow bill and facial skin when in breeding plumage. This foi-m seems to us to be Herodias intermedia not 

 yet in full nuptial dress, the black of the bUl being, apparently, the last adjimct to the breeding characters; 

 a specimen from Celebes in this dress is described above, but another from there in breeding plumage with- 

 a nearly black bill will be found mentioned. ' Moreover, in some of the Oriental countries H. intermedia is 

 kno\\Ti as a migrant (for instance, in Palawan — according to Whitehead), and we know of no proof as 

 yet, even, whether the AustraUan birds are not simply visitors to the country from the north. It seems more 

 likely that they are for the most part resident and fairly stationai-y; therefore, perhaps with racial distinctions, 

 but, until this is proved to be the case by sufficient specimens and obsei-vations, we prefer not to spht up 

 H. intermedia as Dr. Sharpe has done. 



105* 



