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(male and female) from the nest of the species that inhabits this island, and they are dark slate- 
coloured — much blacker and glossier, in fact, than a slate-coloured bird in full plumage, although 
long filaments of white down still remain on the head &c. Europeans and natives assure me that 
they breed in both phases of plumage, and that sometimes a white bird will be mated with a blue 
one. It nests indifferently on rocks, on the ground, or in the mangrove or other trees that line the 
sea-shore Now, if the Indian bird is always white when young, as alleged, and our bird is 
s/afo-coloured, may not that fact indicate that the two are distinct 1 Or are the white and slate- 
coloured birds only dimorphic varieties ? Has any one seen the Asiatic race slate-coloured when in 
the nest, or observed the slate-coloured and white birds breeding together in India 1 ” * 
In ‘The Ibis’ for 1879 (p. 221) there appears a letter from the same naturalist (dated Noumea, 
New Caledonia, 5th December), in which, after referring to Mr. S. B. Dole’s ‘ Synopsis of the Birds 
of the Hawaiian Islands,’ and to the author’s statement respecting A. sacra, “ the young birds are 
wholly white, and the female whiter than the male,” he says : — “ Now this is quite in direct opposi- 
tion to my experience of the bird in Fiji, and accords with my statement of the Ceylonese species (cf. 
‘Ibis,’ 1876, p. 176). This opens this very curious question once more. Are they distinct races or 
species, or are the young in some places white, and in others hlue'l I hope my brethren of ‘ The Ibis’ 
will, as their opportunities permit them, keep this subject in view. We have the species here ; but I 
do not yet know of any breeding-place.” 
Canon Tristram, writing on a collection of birds from the New Hebrides, collected by the Kev. 
J. Inglis (‘Ibis,’ April 1876, p. 265), says: — “Two specimens in good state from Aneiteum are in 
the collection. They are considerably larger than Ardea sacra from Samoa. I observe that they 
sustain the remarks made by Mr. G. K. Gray, who would have separated them under his name of 
* Hnme says (‘ Stray Feathers,’ vol. i. p. 254) : — “ Professor Schlegol and Mr. Gray are certainly wrong in. uniting asha, 
Sykes, with Forster; they are probably right in considering coHColor, Blyth, as identical with this latter; but asha of 
Sykes is gularis, and not jugidaris. The faet is there are two nearly allied species ; the one occurs along the eastern and north- 
eastern coast of Africa up to Suez down the Arabian Coast, and has now been observed by mo at Muscat, along the Mekran 
Coast, and at Kurrachee, and again on the Bombay Coast at Teetul, near Bulsar ; and Dr. Jerdon’s description shows 
clearly that this is the bird which ho and Sykes found down the western coast of India. This is gularis ; on the other hand, 
the second species is found in New Zealand, Australia, throughout the Indian Archipelago, and, I have reason to believe, though 
I have no specimens with me to compare, throughout Burma, up to llamree Island, in the Kicobars and Andamans, and possibly 
on tlie eastern shores of the Bay of Bengal. This latter is jugularis, Forster, pannosa, Gould, concohr, Blyth, and probably 
sacra, Gmelin, the name by which it should, according to Mr. Gray, stand. Both species are typically, when adult, deep slaty 
blue, becoming more or less black in old birds ; both seem to have an allotropic white form, which is not necessarily the young, 
these having been iaken from the nest of the same dark colour as the typical adult, and both have a light slaty grey stage, 
which appears to me to indicate immaturity, in which a good deal of the centre of the abdomen, vent, and lower tail-coverts are 
white A very great deal remains to bo ascertained in regard to the changes of plumage of both these species, and it is 
possible that jugularis or sacra may bo found to include two species, but gularis and jugularis are clearly distinct, and can be 
separated at once Chdaris has the whole chin, throat, and sides of the head nearly to the gape, and quite to the base 
of the ear-coverts, white ; jugularis or sacra has only a narrow white stripe down the centre of the throat.” 
And again {op. cit. vol. ii. p. 304) : — “ This species is no doubt very variable alike in size and in plumage, even supposing 
that the white race, of which I shall speak hereafter, be separated as a distinct bird ; but it is quite clear, with this very large 
series that we now possess of the ashy bird, that aU those inhabiting the islands of the Bay of Bengal and its eastern coast 
belong to one and the same species Colonel Tytler notes A distinct species, which I call provisionally Demiegretta 
Candida, but which may prove identical with D. greyi, and which precisely resembles D. conoolor, Blyth, has erroneously been 
assumed to be the young of this latter. I have had them from the nest, and can certify that the ]jlumage is at all times white, 
just as that of concolor is always ashy . . .” And Macgillivray remarks of the bird in Australia : — “ I was convinced that they 
were specifically distinct by seeing that the half-grown young from the nests had assumed the distinctive colour of the parents.” 
As regards the white variety, Davison says ; — “ This species, if it really is a species, and not merely an albinoid variety of 
H. sacra, is not uncommon about the Andamans and Hieobars. It usually associates with H. sacra ; but is so shy and wary 
that it is almost impossible to get a shot. In size, gait, habits, &c. it is identical with //. sacra, differing only in colour.” 
