THE LITTLE YELLOW-BILLED WHITE HERON. 249 
614. HERODIAS EULOPHOTES. 
THE LITTLE YELLOW-BILLED WHITE HEBON. 
Herodias eulophotes, Swinh. Ibis, 1860, p. 64 ; BL Ibis, 1865, p. 37 ; Bl. B. Burm. 
p. 159 ; Dovid et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 441 ; Hume 8f Dav. 8. F. vi. pp. 478, 480 ; 
Hume, S. F. viii. p. 114. 
Description. — Male in May (Swinhoe collection). The whole plumage 
white ; a crest of numerous straight feathers four inches in length ; a train 
of feathers springing from the back and not exceeding the tail j feathers 
of the breast about 3 inches long ; bill entirely yellow ; legs and toes 
black. Length of skin 20 inches^ tail 3*1, wing 9*3, tarsus 2'9, bill from 
gape 3*8. 
Another specimen unsexed and without date is in exactly the same 
plumage and has the bill entirely yellow ; it measures — length of skin 22 
inches^ tail 3'7; wing 10*1^ tarsus 3'6, bill 3*9. 
A young bird (male^ Ningpo, Sept. 22) has no crest and no train either 
on the breast or back ; the basal two thirds of the lower mandible and the 
margins of the basal half of the upper are yellow, remainder of the bill 
black ; toes yellowish above. 
Mr. Swinhoe gives the length of the bird as 27 inches ; but I do not 
think that any one of the three specimens^ the measurements of which 
in the skin are given above^ could ever have measured this length in the 
flesh. 
In breeding-plumage this species may be distinguished from the preceding 
by the character of the crest and by the bill being yellow instead of black. 
At other times when the crest is absent the identification will be difficult ; 
but I think that in H. eulophotes the bill will always be found to be more 
or less yellow over the greater portion of the lower mandible^, whereas in 
H. garzetta merely the base is yellow^ and the tarsus also appears to be 
always much shorter. 
The Little Yellow-billed White Heron is stated by Mr. Blyth to have 
occurred at Mergui in Tenasserim j and Mr. Davison procured at Amherst^ 
in the same Division^ a specimen of a small white Heron which Mr. Hume 
identifies with the present species. I think it visits Southern Pegu in the 
winter_, but I am not certain of the fact. 
Mr. Hume mentions another bird shot at the Andamans which he is 
inclined to assign to this species^ and^ judging from the colour of the bill 
as described by him_, correctly so. 
This species inhabits Formosa and the south of China. Mr. Blyth manj^ 
years ago identified H. immaculata from Australia with the Chinese bird • 
but, judging from Mr. Gould's plate^ in which the bird is represented with 
a black bill, I am inclined to doubt the accuracy of this identification. 
