HERODIONES. 221 



coasts of Australia and New Zealand, and to some of the Pacific 

 Islands. It is protaUe that the name of Jrdea sacra (Gmelin, Syst. 

 Nat. i. p. 640) may apply to the white form ; but in the absence of 

 proof it is wisest to adopt Wagler^s name for the grey form^ and 

 Ardea jugularis greyi (Gray, List Spec. Birds CoU. Brit. Mus. 

 iii. p. 80) for the white form. From Ceylon westwards along the 

 coasts of Africa to the Gulf of Guinea a nearly allied species, Ardea 

 gularis, is found, with much more white on the throat and a much 

 more elongated crest. 



The Eastern Reef-Heron is found as far north as Southern 

 Japan, where it was obtained by Dr. Siebold (Schlegel, Mus. 

 Pays-Bas, v. pt. 4, p. 28), though it was not included in the 

 ' Fauna Japonica.' Mr. Ringer gave me two skins from Tsu-sima, an 

 island in the Straits of Gorea, and he also procured it from the 

 Goto Islands a little further south (Blakiston and Pryer, Trans. As. 

 Soc. Japan, 1882, p. 120). Captain Rodgers obtained both the grey 

 form and the white form on the shores of the Loo-Choo Islands 

 (Cassin, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. 1862, p. 321) ; and there are 

 two examples of the grey form in the Pryer collection from the same 

 locality. There are also examples of both the grey form and the 

 white form from the central group of the Loo-Choo Islands in the 

 museum of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington (Stejneger, 

 Proc. United States Nat. Mus. 1887, pp. 301-303). The grey forms 

 from the Corean Straits and from the Loo-Choo Islands are described 

 by Stejneger as a new species under the name of Demiegretta 

 ringeri. 



In none of my examples is the crown or the occipital crest lighter 

 in colour than is the case with typical examples in summer plumage, 

 as stated by Dr. Stejneger of birds from the same localities. They 

 all agree in having a narrow white line on the chin and upper throat, 

 though this is sometimes obsolete or nearly so. Examples from the 

 Pacific are on an average larger, darker and browner on the under- 

 parts than those from the Bay of Bengal. 



Genus Nycticorax. — The Night-Herons dififer from the Herons 

 [Ardea) and from the Bitterns (Botaurus) in having the lower 

 portion of the tarsus reticulated instead of scutellated in front. They 

 further differ from Ardea, and resemble Botaurus, in having the 

 tibia feathered almost to the joint; and they further differ from 



