

ABDEA SACEA. 



ALKU. 



" Sacred Heron," Latham, Gen. Synops. iii. p. 92 ; " Blue Heron," var. B, id. torn. cit. p. 78. 



1 Ardea ccerulea, var. y, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 631 (1788). 



Ardea sacra, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 640 (1788) ; Finsch. & Hartlaub, Orn. Centralpolyn. p. 201 



(1867) j Dole, Proc. Boston Soc. N. H. 1869, p. 303 (partim) ; id. Hawaiian Alman. 1879, 



p. 52 (partim) ; Finsch, Ibis, 1880, p. 79 (partim). 

 Ardea (Herodias) sacra, G. R. Gray, Cat. B. Trop. Isl. p. 48 (1859). 

 Demiegretta sacra, "Wiglesworth, Aves Polyn. p. 67 (1891) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Br. Mus. xxvi. p. 137 



(1898). 



[This list of references could, of course, easily be extended.] 



Evidence as to the occurrence in the Sandwich Islands of this widely ranging species 

 rests only on the observations of Mr. Dole and Dr. Finsch \ each of whom records the 

 appearance of a white Heron, which may very likely have been an example of the 

 white form of Ardea sacra, though neither of them obtained a specimen, and it is 

 pretty clear that the others named by them were Night-Herons (Nycticorax) — the only 

 species of the family Ardeidce there commonly met with. None of the more recent 

 ornithological explorers (not even Mr. Perkins, who passed so long a time in the 

 islands) observed or much less procured an example which could have belonged to 

 either the blue or the white form of Ardea sacra, and we know from specimens which 

 that gentleman obtained that the young of Nycticorax griseus are not white, but have 

 the same plumage there as elsewhere. 



That Ardea sacra should occasionally stray to the Sandwich group is quite probable, 

 since it appears on almost every cluster of islands in the Pacific Ocean ; but it is 

 certain that Mr. Dole's information as to its being " common all over the group," and 

 laying " two eggs, which are mottled," must be incorrect, while the fine specimen shot 

 near Honolulu, and described by him from memory, was doubtless an adult JSycticorax. 

 Dr. Finsch's evidence is simply : " The white form I observed once at Kahalui." 



Description. — Adult male and female. " Saturate cinereo-caerulescens, abdomine 

 subfuscescente, linea a mento per mediam gulam decurrente lata nivea ; cristas, tergi et 



1 It is true that Mr. G. E. Gray (he. cit.) assigned the Sandwich Islands as a locality for this species, and 

 even gave " Otoo " (probahly an old way of writing Auku) as the native name it there bore, but on what 

 authority he made either statement is unknown. 



