ABDEID^ HBEODIAS 65 



Bill black ; a pair of elongate narrow plumes 

 on the nape ; ornamental decomposed 

 plumes on the breast in the breeding 

 season H. garzetta, p. 68. 



589. Herodias alba. Great White Egret. 



Ardea alba, Linn. Syst. Nat. 12th ed., i, p. 239 (1766) ; Buckley, Ibis, 

 1874, p. 390; Dresser, B. Em: vi, p. 231, pi. 398 (1880) ; Holub d- 

 Pelzeln, Orn. Sild-Afr. p. 273 (1882). 



Herodias alba, Gurneij in Anderssoii's B. Damaral. p. 289 (1872) 

 Sharpc, eJ. Layard's B. 8. Afr. p. 714 (1884); Ayrcs, Ibis, 1885, 

 p. 349 ; Symonds, Ibis, 1887, p. 335 ; Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 157 (1896) 

 Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxvi, p. 90 (1898) ; Woodtvard Bros. Natal B 

 p. 194 (1899) ; Marshall, Ibis, 1900, p. 270 ; Alexander, ibid. p. 439 

 Beichenow, Vog. Afr. i, p. 388 (1901) ; Whitehead, Ibis, 1903, p. 237. 



Description. Adult Female in breeding dress. — Plumage pure 

 white throughout ; head slightly crested ; scapulars produced and 

 forming elongated decomposed plumes extending beyond the tail ; 

 feathers on the fore-neck and sides of the breast also fully developed 

 and forming a kind of shield over the latter, but not decomposed. 



»Iris pale yellov? ; bill chrome yellow, blackish towards the tip and 

 along the commissure ; bare skin in front of the eye greenish ; legs 

 and feet black throughout. 



Length (in flesh) 38; wing 14'0 ; tail 6-2 ; culmen 4-25 ; tarsus 

 5-7; middle toe 410. 



The adult in non-breeding dress loses the ornamental plumes, 

 and the bill is entirely yellow ; the young birds are also without 

 plumes, and have a softer and more downy plumage. 



In European and Asiatic examples of this bird the bill is quite 

 black in the breeding season, and yellow at other times ; but in 

 Africa the bill appears never to become quite black ; the dimensions 

 also vary very remarkably among individuals of this species ; those 

 given above (of a female from Potchefstroom) are small as com- 

 pared with the average stated in the British Museum Catalogue, 

 where a very large male specimen from India is noticed which had 

 a tarsus measuring 8'25 inches, whilst the smallest, a female, also 

 from India, had one of only 5-25 inches. 



Distribution. — The Great White Egret is found throughout 

 Southern and South-eastern Europe, and Southern Asia as far as 

 Burma and Ceylon, and is a straggler to Northern Europe and 

 Great Britain ; it is also found throughout Africa and Madagascar. 



5 VOL. IV. 



