230 HERODIONES. 



white occipital crest. In winter it may be known by its longer bill, 

 which measures from the frontal feathers 3^ to 2| inches, instead of 

 only from 2 J to 2 j inches ; and by its shorter middle toe, which 

 measures, without the claw, only from 2j to 2f instead of from 2f 

 to 2| inches ; so that in A. eulophotes the bill is longer than the 

 middle toe, but in A. coromanda it is shorter. 



Figures : D'Aubenton, Planches Enluminees, no. 910. 



The Eastern Buff-backed Heron is a summer visitor to Southern 

 Japan, but it has not been recorded from Yezzo. There are four 

 examples from Tokio in winter plumage in the Pryer collection 

 (Seebohm, Ibis, 1884, p. 35), and I have one in full summer dress 

 from Sakai, in the south-west of the main island, collected by Mr. 

 Owston. It has been sent by Mr. Ringer from Nagasaki, where 

 the examples obtained by Dr. Siebold were doubtless also procured 

 (Temminck and Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, Aves, p. 115). 



It is a tropical species, inhabiting India, Ceylon, the Burma 

 Peninsula, Cochin China, Southern China, Java, Borneo, Celebes, 

 and the Philippine Islands. 



206. ARDEA JUGULARIS. 



(EASTERN REEF-HERON.) 



Ardea jugularis, Wagler, Syst. Av. p. 214 (1827). 



The grey phase of the Eastern Reef-Heron may be known by the 

 nearly uniform slate-grey colour of the plumage ; the white phase is 

 of the same length of wing as Ardea intermedia, but the bill from 

 frontal feathers (3f to 3f inches) is longer instead of shorter than 

 the middle toe and claw (2|^ to 2f inches). 



Figures : Gould, Birds of Australia, vi. pi. 60 (grey form), pi. 61 

 (white form). 



The synonymy of the Reef- Herons is in the greatest confusion in 

 consequence of there being two forms, one pure white, and the other 

 slate-grey with a white line down the chin and upper throat. The 

 white form appears to be the rarer of the two, but they are generally 

 found together, and occasionally produce piebald examples, pre- 

 sumably by interbreeding. The Japanese birds belong to the Eastern 

 species, which is said to range from the Andaman Islands eastwards 

 on the coasts of Burma, the islands of the Malay Archipelago, to the 



