Vol. XXXV.] 14 



and all the white feathers of the upper breast edged with 

 purplish-blue, giving the plumage of these parts a scaled 

 appearance. As in A. r. aolce, the under tail-coverts are 

 white tipped with blue. Wing 55_, tail 23 mm. Iris brown; 

 bill black ; feet smoky-brown. 



Hab. Bougainville and Kulambangra, Solomon Islands. 



Type in the British Museum. 



Dr. Ernst Hartert described two Herons as follows: — 

 "In the 'Catalogue of Birds' (vol. xxvi. 1898, p. 116), 

 under Lepterodius gularis, Sharpe included some specimens 

 from Madagascar ; of this same form the Tring Museum 

 possesses quite a series from Madagascar and Aldabra. 

 These birds have a superficial resemblance to Lepterodius 

 gularis, but are quite different. Tbey do not even belong 

 to the same genus and cannot, in my opinion, be satis- 

 factorily separated from Egretta {Herodias auct.). The 

 name of Lepterodius (originally spelt Lepterodas) cannot 

 be accepted at all for the African Reef- Herons, as it was 

 proposed as a new name for the Grey Heron, Ai'dea cinerea 

 being expressly mentioned as the type; Sharpe's "Lepte- 

 rodius " is, in my opinion, best united with Demigretta, as 

 has been done by Blanford, Sharpe in 1886, Hume, Gates, 

 and others. 



^' From the various species of Demigretta, the Madagascar 

 Heron, which I propose to call 



Egretta dimorpha, sp. n., 



differs in the more slender and more pointed beak, the two 

 mandibles of which meet for their whole length ; by having 

 longer and more slender tarsi and by having two long tape- 

 like plumes at the occiput, at least in the breeding-season ; 

 the dorsal " train " of ornamental feathers is well developed 

 and in adult males reaches beyond the tail. The colour is 

 slate-black, darker than in most of the other species of 

 Demigretta, the primary coverts are, for the most part, 

 partially or entirely white, and there is usually more or 

 less white on the throat. Gther specimens are entirely 

 white, others again arc intermediate between the two 



