ARDRA GARZETTA. 85 
men from which the above description is talcen was shot 
among some tall sedge up a river near Brunai. 
Ardea garzetta (r). 
Kanawy putih (Malay name). 
Young — white; some of the feathers on the neck, and a few on 
the lower parts of the body, especially about the lower covers and 
thighs, are irregularly marked, and speckled with brownish black ; 
this, however, appears to arise from the specimen being in imirrature 
plumage, as in some places, over one ear, for example, there is a 
decided patch of this colour, while the other ear is pure white ; the 
long feathers of the crest are also wanting, showing that the bird is 
not in full plumage ; beak black, except the basal half of the lower 
inandihle, which is yellowish white ; tarsus black ; feet greenish 
black. 
Length, from the tip of the bill to tbe tip of the tail, 22 inches. 
„ of bill from gape, 3 inches 9 lines. 
„ of bill from front, 3 inches. 
„ of wings, 10|^ inches. 
„ of tail, 3 inches 10 lines. 
„ of tarsus, 4 inches. 
„ of middle toe, 2 inches 1 1 lines. 
„ of hallux, 1 inch 8 lines. 
„ of thigh bare above the knee joint, 2 inches 2 lines. 
Besides the Malay name given above, these Egrets are 
commonly called “ padi birds,’’ from their frequenting the 
rice-fields ; they feed on the mud left by the. tide, running 
about very fast with their heads down : they roost together 
in large numbers on trees, and are said to build in high jungle, 
though from the following specimen of Malay superstition, 
which, though perhaps rather out of place in a work on natural 
history, from its poetical character and its resemblance to tbe 
fairy legends of our own country we are induced to insert, it 
would appear that their nests are not easily found, or often 
seen ; the legend was translated from the Malay lan'^iage by 
Mr. Motley, and is almost In the very words in which it was 
told him. It runs as follows: — 
“ It is said that but one mortal has ever seen the nests and 
eggs of the Kanawy putih, for they do not, like other birds, 
breed in tbe swamps and jungle of our visible w'orld, but about 
the bouses of certain happy invisible beings called tbe Orang 
Ka-benar-an or ‘ people of truthfulness.’ They are a race of 
