BUFF-BACKED HERON. 149 



GRA LLA TORES. A RDEIDM. 



PLATE CLXVI. 



BUFF-BACKED HERON. 



ARDEA RUSSATA. 



This rare visitant in Great Britain is an inhabitant of Asia 

 and Africa; it is found during some parts of the year in the 

 most southern parts of Europe, which border the Mediterra- 

 nean, but not in any numbers ; and its habits are still 

 unknown. The only British killed specimen is in the 

 British Museum, and is in immature plumage ; it was killed 

 in Devonshire in 1 805, according to Montagu. Temminck 

 informs us that this species is common in India and Japan, 

 all of which proves the Buff-backed Heron to be indigenous 

 in the warmer parts of the world. 



The measurements, which we have taken from the specimen 

 in the British Museum, are as follows : — From the tip of the 

 beak to the extremity of the tail, twenty inches ; the beak, 

 two inches along the upper ridge. The legs are nearly three 

 inches and a half long ; the unfeathered part above the 

 knee, one inch and three lines ; the middle toe, two inches 

 and three-quarters : the wing, from the carpus to the tip, ten 

 inches. 



The plumage is white, with the exception of the feathers on 

 the head, which are saffron-yellow ; the throat, front of the 

 neck, and breast gold-yellow. The flowing ornamental 

 feathers of the back, ochre-yellow. The beak is ochre- 

 yellow, darkest at the tip ; the lore yellow, and the iris 

 gamboge-yellow. The legs are olivaceous black ; claws dusky. 



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