Birds of Celebes: Ardeidae. 
825 
Celebes: — Manteliage Id. (Nat. Coll.), Minahassa — Kema (P. & P. Sarasin a 4, 
a 5); South coast of New Guinea (fide E. P. Eamsay c 4); Australia (Gould a I, 
c 3, Ramsay c 4). 
This rare Egret was first discovered in Celebes in 1893, when our native 
hunters got an example in breeding plumage in April on the island of Mantehage 
off the coast of the Minahassa, and the Drs. P. & F. Sarasin a second in October- 
on the mainland at Kema, the latter being in winter or immature dress with- 
out any decorative plumes and with a partially black bill. Unless we are much 
mistaken, it is in this partial winter plumage that Gould has figured the species 
in his “Birds of Australia” as H. immaculata. Here Gilbert says that he met 
with it in great numbers in Van Diemen’s Gulf, N. Australia. There seem to 
be only two records of its occurrence in Tenasserim and only one from the 
Andamans, as shown by Hume and Oates. In North Formosa Swinhoe found 
it pretty common, “being frequently seen in parties of four and five and in 
company with the H. garzettd\ with which they seemed to be nesting. “This and 
H. garzetta feed almost entirely on fish, shrimps, and Squillae; whereas the 
Yellow-head (Buphus coromandus) and all the Ardetta group are to a great extent 
omnivorous. I have kept alive most oi the Ardeidae that occur in China”. Swinhoe 
makes some instructive remarks on the seasonal changes this species undergoes, 
the bill being of a fine clear yellow in summer, becoming tinged with brown 
in winter; the legs are in summer black, in winter greenish brown; the 
crest is shed in August, when the other nuptial plumes are much worn. 
Air. De La Touche says that “at Swatow (in South China) it is very abundant 
during the summer, but goes south for the winter”. We suspect that it is only 
a winter visitor to Celebes, but there is, of course, as yet no sufficient evidence 
whereon to ground an opinion. 
In winter plumage, when much of its bill is blackish, this Egret is very 
liable to be mistaken for H. garzetta-, it may best be distinguished by its short 
legs (the tarsus being considerably less than 90 mm, while in II. garzetta it is 
about 100 mm); also its bill is shorter and probably never black on the basal 
half of the upper, as well as the under, mandible, and the first primary is as 
long or longer than the second and third, whereas in garzetta it is slightly shorter 
(2 5 mm). In breeding dress it is easily recognisable by its crest of many 
lanceolate feathers and yellow bill. Bemiegretta sacra has similar short, though 
much thicker, legs, toes and claws; in the albino state this bird may further 
be distinguished from JET. eulophotes by its longer wing (with the first primary about 
5 mm shorter than the third) and by its stout bill. 
There is little reason to doubt that Swinhoe s II. eulophotes and Gould s 
H. immaculata are one and the same species, as Blyth (c 2) long ago stated 
them to be. W^hat the Herodias immaculata of Salvador! (Orn. Pap. 1882, III, 
356) from New Guinea is we do not know; it is a large bird with the tarsus 
110 mm long, or 25—35 mm longer than in the subject of the present article, 
Meyer & Wi^rleswortli, Birds of Celebes (Dee. lltbj 1897). 104 
