298 



ORNITHOLOGY. 



Gould, B. of Aust. VI, Plate LXVII. 



Specimens from Tahiti in the collection of the Expedition cannot 

 be distinguished from others in the Museum of the Philadelphia Aca- 

 demy, from Northern Australia. The latter are from Mr. Gould's 

 collection, and are the types of his description and figure, above cited. 

 In his article on this species, in Birds of Australia, as cited above, Mr. 

 Gould refers to a description in the Proceedings of the Zoological So- 

 ciety of London, Nov. 1847, which we do not find in the copy to which 

 we have access, and cite, therefore, his description in the work we 

 have mentioned. 



Mr. Peale mentions this bird as " common at Tahiti along fresh 

 water streams." 



3. Ardea herodias, Linnaeus. — The Great Heron. 



Anlca herodias, LiNN. Syst. Nat. I, p. 237 (1766). 

 Ardea hudwn'ia, LiNN. Syst. Nat. I, p. 238. 



Wilson, Am. Orn. VII, Plate LXV, fig. 5; Aud. B. of Am. Plate 

 CCXI ; oct. ed. VI, Plate CCCLXIX. 



A specimen in the collection from Oregon. This species is noticed 

 by the naturalists of the Expedition as having been seen in that 

 country and in California. 



brownish-gray; shafts black ; the second quill longest, first and third equal; tail rounded, 

 the shafts black above, white beneath; sides of the neck, breast, belly, and under tail- 

 coverts, tawny ash-color ; a white line in front of the neck, which reaches from the bill 

 to the breast, near this the feathers have each a tawny spot on the tip ; under parts of 

 the wings ash-colored, with a white margin in front ; bill above black, beneath yellow ; 

 lores green, with a yellow spot in front of, and above the eye; legs yellow; the claws 

 pale brown. 



"Total length, sixteen inches; wing, from the carpal joint, seven and three-tenths 

 inches ; tail, two and eight-tenths inches ; bill two and six-tenths inches ; to the corners 

 of the mouth, three and a half inches; tarsi, one and eight-tenths of an inch; middle 

 toe, including the claw, two inches ; claw, seven-twentieths of an inch. Male. 



" The females are somewhat larger, but in plumage resemble the males. The young 

 birds have their sides, belly, and under tail-coverts of a ferruginous buff-color, which also 

 descends from the head down the sides of the neck, each feather having longitudinal 

 double lines of dusky black ; legs dirty green." 



