402 r APPENDIX. IX. 



white spot at the end of each; in the feathers 

 of the back of the neck, and upwards to the 

 crown of the head, the white mark at the end is 

 lengthened to a stripe. The throat is white, 

 with a few longitudinal light brown lines, and 

 the feathers down the neck and breast, which 

 last are long and pendent, are of the same 

 color, the sides of each being more distinctly 

 marked with a stripe of the brown; the belly 

 and thighs are much of the same color but 

 lighter ; the vent is whit*. The quil-feathers 

 are dusky-ash-colored, tipped with white, and 

 reach nearly to the end of the tail, which is of 

 an uniform ash-colored grey. The bill is dark 

 brown, the lorum and orbits naked and green- 

 ish; irides fine pale yellow. ' It has a short 

 crest somewhat inclining downwards. The 

 legs and feet are a dull green ; the toes very 

 long, the claw of the middle one serrulated on 

 the inside. 



I think this a species perfectly distinct from 

 the Ardea Nycticora.v, notwithstanding Dr. 

 ^ Latham s mark of doubt. If we may reason 

 from analogy, the specimen from which this 

 description is taken, seems to bear one parti- 

 cular character of a male bird ; in the common 

 Heron the pendent feathers on the breast are 

 not . found on the female subject, and the 



