1128 ABDEA CINEREA. 



on the face and throat, pale slate-grey on the nape, rufescent down the fore neck, slaty hrown on the back and 

 ■wings, and whitish on the breast and underparts ; the head-feathers are supplemented by the long grey hairy 

 down of the unfeathered nestling. The " powder-down tracts " are developed from the first. 



In the first plumage the colour of the back, wing-coverts, and hind neck is ashy brown; the scapulars, tertials, 

 and tail slaty brown : head brown, the feathers with pale mesial lines ; the occipital feathers are about 2 inches 

 in length and the sides of the occiput are blackish brown : throat and centre of the fore neck white, the sides of 

 the chest and flanks ashy brown like the hind neck ; the black stripes down the centre of the throat tinged with 

 brown, and the tuft at the sides of the chest darker brown than the surrounding plumage, the feathers having 

 whitish central stripes. 



After the moult the plumage above is more slaty, but still brownish ; the head is blacker, no white on the crown ; the 

 pectoral tufts blacker, with broad white stripes. 



Immatun male in 2nd y< m- (January : Ceylon). Length 40-0 inches ; wing 16-5 ; tail 7 - ; tarsus 6-0 ; middle toe 3 - 8, 

 its claw (straight) 0-67 ; bill, gape to tip 6-15. 



Iris dingy yellow. Bill — upper mandible dusky reddish brown, the lower fleshy yellow, except at tip ; tibia and 

 tarsus vinous brown, paler behind. 



Head bluish grey, whitish at the base of the bill, centre of the forehead blackish grey ; occipital crest black, but not 

 continued forward over the eye as in the adult, but the space behind the eye is blackish brown, two of the centre 

 feathers with a white mesial line ; throat, neck, chest, with the pectoral plumes (which are not elongated), and 

 the under surface white ; the black spots down the fore neck fewer than in the adult ; lower part of the hind 

 neck bluish grey, darkening into the grey of the back, which is browner than in the old bird : quills the same, the 

 inner webs of the greater wing-coverts brownish slate ; tail dark bluish grey ; under wing-coverts patched with 

 brownish slate near the edge. 



This specimen is in partial moult ; the upper surface is' in abraded plumage, but the plumes of the breast have the appear- 

 ance of being new, and there is no sign of the black chest and flank-feathers ; so that these, together with the bands at 

 the sides of the head, do not seem to be acquired until after the second moult, or when the bird is in its third year. 

 Some examples, however, have, in the second year, a row of blackish dashes down the sides of the breast in conti- 

 nuation, as it were, of the row down the centre of the throat. 



Obs. The grey tints of this bird seem to fade in the tropics ; and 1 question if Ceylonese and perhaps Indian examples 

 are not paler, as a rule, than those from cold climates. A female in my collection has the neck almost white, as 

 also the pectoral plumes. 



It is probable that the Ardea brag, of Is. Geoffr., founded on a Cashmere specimen, was an abnormally coloured 

 example of the present species. Bonaparte says that it is " smaller, with the whole top of the head black; a long 

 black crest, with the feathers much elongated, and the dorsal plumes dull and somewhat decomposed " (fide Jerdon). 



The Australian race (A. leucophcea, Gould) was separated from the European by its describer on account of its alleged 

 larger size and the upward tendency of the terminal half of the bill. The plate in the ' Birds of Australia' 

 depicts, in all other respects, our species, aud it is generally considered that A. leucophcea is identical with 

 A. cinerea. 



Distribution. — This well-known bird is tolerably common throughout the northern, eastern, and south- 

 eastern portions of the island; but it is a straggler to the Western Province south of Chilaw, not breeding, so 

 far as I am aware, between that locality and the Wallaway river. In the south it is to be met with in the 

 Kattregama district, and probably in suitable places at tanks and swamps between there and Batticaloa. It is 

 to be found at Ambare and Rugam tanks, and in the Tamankada pattuwa it is not uncommon ; it frequents 

 the Minery Lake and the Kanthelai tank, and about Tamblcgam and in the vicinity of small tanks along the 

 north-east coast it is resident. At Sieventhamurrippu, in the Tirai district, Capt. Wade-Dalton met with it ; 

 and I have seen it near Jaffna. At Padewayia and other tanks which abound in large Waders it is doubtless 

 to be found; and in the north-west, at Aripu, Mr. Holdsworth has met with it. In the N.W. Province, 

 Mr. Parker has found it breeding at Nikaweratiya tank. 



This Heron is met with throughout India ; but is not so common on the eastern side of the Bay, where 

 it has been procured of late only at Thayetmyo by Capt. Feilden ; and at Thatone and on the Pakchan river, 

 in Tenasserim, by Mr. Davison. It has not been noticed in the Andamaus or Nicobars, although Mr. Hume 



