276 TANTALID^. 



resemble the bellowing of a bull. It is heard while the bird is 

 soaring in the air, but the sound is feeble, compared with the hollow 

 booming noise which it makes at night during the breeding season. 



Gen. 'NyoticorsiX.—Steph. 



Bill long, sharp, the gape extending below the eyes ; nostrils in a 

 lateral groove covered by membranous scale; wings with the 2nd and 

 3rd quills longest; claw of mid-toe serrated; tarsi irregularly scaled. 



Nycticorax griseus, Linn.; P. E. 758,759; Naum. Vogt.t. 225; 

 Gould. B. Eur. pi, 279; Jerd. B. hid. iii. 758, No. 937 ; 8tr. P. iv. 415 ; 

 Murray, Hdb/t., Zool., ^x., 8ind, p. 228. (Gadri, Sind). — The Night 

 Heron. 



Forehead and supercilium, also the chin, throat and a narrow mesial 

 line on the foreneck white ; under tail-coverts, breast and abdomen 

 white, with a creamy tinge ; top of head and nape, also the back and 

 scapulars black, glossed with green ; lengthened crest feathers 6 — 7 

 inches long, narrow and white, tipped with brown ; hind-neck, wing- 

 coverts, taiiand sides of the body ash grey ; first three quills emarginate 

 near the tip ; bill black, yellow at base of lower mandible ; orbitar 

 skin yellowish green ; irides blood red. 



Length. — 22 — 23 inches, wing 12' 5, tail 3" 75, bill at front 2*8, tarsus 3. 



Hob. — Sind, Beloochistan, Persia, Afghanistan and throughout India. 

 It is a permanent resident in the Province, and breeds from May to 

 September in societies. The nest is a loose structure of twigs. Eggs 

 3 — 4, glossless pale sea-green ; 1*92 X 1'35. 



Family, TANTALID^. 



Bill long, stout, rounded, curving downwards in many, flat in 

 others ; wings long ; tail rather short ; toes webbed at the base. 



Sub-Family, TANTALIN^. 



Bill long, slender and curved, sides compressed to the tip, or thick 

 and rounded ; tail even ; inner toe shorter than outer ; hind toe long. 



Gen. Tantalus.— Linn. 



Bill rounded, long and curved downwards ; nostrils at the base of 

 the bill; head and cheeks bare ; tibia naked for half its length. 



Tantalus leucocepliala, Gm.; Forst.Ind. ZooL pi. 20; Gould. B. 

 Asia. pi. 5; Jerd. B. Ind.ip. 761, No. 938; Sir F. vii. 309, 507. 

 Tantalus gangeticus, Shaw, Nat. Misc. pi. 223; Penn. Ind. Zool. pi. 11. 

 (Lungduh, Sind.) — The Pelican Ibis. 



Plumage white ; quills and tail richly glossed greenish black; tertiaries 

 white, tinged with rosy, with a dark band near the end and a white tip, 

 the feathers lax and decomposed; lesser and median-coverts glossy 

 green, edged with white ; greater coverts white ; bill yellow, the tip 

 greenish, as are the naked orbits, head and gular skin; irides pale 

 yellow brown, grey in some ; legs fleshy red. 



