125 
portion ; across the shoulders and covering the flexure of the wings is a broad band of slaty brown^ haviiig 
the appearance of a yoke ; there is a large smudge of the same colour on the fore neck, halfway down, also 
a shade on the crown of the head, pectoral plumes, and under tail-coverts ; the legs arc tinged with yellow 
on the tibia and upper part of tarsus. 
Another specimen, which was afterwards submitted to me, and said to have been killed in winter, bad 
the bill of a beautiful orange-yellow, with a narrow mark of black at the extremity of the upper mandible. 
This bird measured 46 inches in extreme length ; bare tibia 4 ; tarsus G’S. The legs and feet were 
perfectly black. 
I examined three specimens in the Canterbury Museum. One of these (killed on the West Coast) w'as 
an unusually large one, with abundant dorsal plumes, and having the apical portion of the mandibles blackish 
brown, shading off downwards, and deepening to black at the tip ; the tibise and tarsi brown, tinged with 
yellow. Bill, along the ridge o inches, along edge of lower mandible 6 ; bare tibia 3'75 ; tarsus 6 ; middle 
toe and claw 4T. The second bird is of smaller size, but with ample plumes, the upper mandible exhibiting 
a line of black along the ridge ; and the third, which is entirely destitute of the dorsal adornment, has the bill 
perfectly yellow, with a tinge of the same colour at the base of the tibia. 
A live example in the possession of Mr. J. W. Hall (who sent me a coloured drawing of the head) 
exhibits a pale blue tint about the orbits of the eyes; the bill is bright yellow at the base, pale lake in its 
entire length, but black towards the tip of the upper mandible. 
06s. This species exhibits considerable variation in size. A specimen obtained by Mr. Travers in the South 
Island has the bill longer and more robust than in ordinary examples, while the legs are remarkably short 
as compared with others, the tarsus measuring only 5 inches in length. 
Both sexes are adorned with the dorsal plumes during the breeding-season ; but in the female they are 
not so fine as in the other sex. 
Remarks. The fully adult bird of both sexes has the back adorned by a number of long filamentous plumes, 
which have their origin near the roots of the scapulars, extending from four to six inches beyond the tail 
and forming a beautiful train ; but this is peculiar to the breeding-season. The plumes are about 15 inches 
in length, extending fully three inches beyond the tail ; and they consist of a rigid tapering shaft, with 
lateral filaments of extreme fineness, placed about half an inch apart, being, for the most part, five inches in 
length, but becoming shorter towards the extremity of the shaft. The whole of this ornamental plumage is, 
like the body, pure white. In some examples (either females or immature birds) these dorsal plumes are 
very much reduced, a few of the feathers forming the mantle having their shafts produced as far as the end 
of the tail and furnished with loose filamentous barbs. 
As already stated, the bill is of a rich yellow colour. With the rare exceptions mentined above, I have 
never seen any with a black bill or in a transitional state, although I have examined scores obtained at all 
seasons of the year; and I do not believe that any regular seasonal change of colour takes place, in which 
respect our bird appears to differ from the other closely allied species. My friend Dr. Finsch first of all 
referred it to Ardea intermedia, then to A. alba, and lastly to A. egretta ; and, although I kept it distinct 
in my former edition, I feel bound now to adopt the last of these names. Mr. Gould, in surrendering Ins 
own appellation of sgrmatophorus, quotes BlytlFs remarks on the subject (Ibis, 1865, p. 36); but I was 
informed by Mr. Blyth himself that in the Indian bird the change in the colour of the bill, from yellow to 
black, and vice versa, always takes place with the change of season. 
The White Heron occurs so sparingly in most parts of New Zealand, that “rare as the Kotuku ’ has 
passed into a proverb among the Maoris ; while in the North Island it is said to occur only once in 
a lifetime (He Kotuku rerenga tahi). 
The first North-Island example I heard of was at Whaingaroa (Raglan) about the year 1853. 
In 1856 I examined a fine specimen which had been shot at Hurley s ■ mill-reservoir near Wellington. 
A year or two later I saw another from the Wairarapa district. In the summer of 1865 a pair 
visited the mangrov^e swamp at Whangarei, and remained there several weeks. Ihe year before a 
pair was seen at Whangape Lake in the Lower Waikato ; in 1867 another pair frequented, for some 
time, the marshy ground at the mouth of the Maketu river, and again in 1867 a pair visited the 
