AVIFAUNA OF LAYSAN, ETC. 



267 



70. DEMIEGRETTA SACRA (Gm.) (?). 



AUKUU. 



Sacred Heron, Latham, Gen. Syn. B. iii. p. 92 (1785) (Otaheite). 



Ardea sacra, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 640 (1788) ; G. R. Gray, Cat. B. Trop. Is. p. 48 (1859) ; Dole, Proc. 



Boston Soc. N. H. 1869, p. 303; id. Hawaii. Aim. 1879, p. 52; Finsch, Ibis, 1880, p. 79; Wilson & 



Evans, Aves Hawaii, pt. vii. (1899). 

 Demiegretta sacra, Wiglesw. Aves Polynes. p. 67 (1891) ; Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxvi. p. 137 (1898). 



G. R. Gray mentioned the Sandwich Islands as a locality for this Heron, hut he does not say 

 on what authority. Mr. Sandford Dole's evidence is rather incorrect, and certainly his 

 statement that it is " common all over the group " is erroneous. Dr. Pinsch, who was well 

 acquainted with this bird from his travels in the Pacific Ocean, says that he " observed the 

 white form once at Kahalui." As no specimen has ever been closely examined by a competent 

 ornithologist, the occurrence of this bird wants confirmation. Neither Mr. Wilson nor 

 Palmer and Perkins ever came across it. 



It is widely distributed. Sharpe (I. c.) says " Coasts of Burma and the islands in the 

 Bay of Bengal, by the Malay Peninsula and islands to Australia and the Pacific, extending 

 north to the islands in the Bay of Corea." 



2o 



