BLUE REEF-HERON. 
The bird figured and described is a male, collected at Point Torment, 
North-west Australia, on March 7th, 1911, by Mr. J. P. Rogers. 
In the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, Vol. XXVI., 
Sharpe lumped all the Reef-Herons, from India to Tahiti and up to China, 
under the specific name Demiegretta sacra, based upon the Ardea sacra 
Gmelin {Syst. Nat., p. 640, 1789). This depends solely upon the Sacred 
Heron of Latham {Gen. Synods. Birds, Vol. III., pt. i,, p. 92, 1785), which 
is thus described : — 
“ Size of the little Egret ? length two feet three inches. General colour 
of the plumage white ; bill four inches long, dusky brown ; on the middle 
of the crown a few obscure dusky streaks down the shafts of some of the 
feathers ; several of those of the back, wing, and tail-coverts marked in the 
same manner ; scapulars dashed with black ; greater quills more or less dusky 
at the tips ; the tail-feathers marked with dusky down the shafts, from the 
tip, an inch and a half upwards, except the outer feather, which is plain ; 
legs yellow. 
“ Inhabits Otaheite, and the neighbouring isles, where it is held sacred. 
“ In the collection of Sir Joseph Banks. 
“ Var. A. With the above is one not far different. The crown of a 
plain white ; scapulars some white, some black ; on the fore part of the neck, 
some loose long feathers, black and white mixed, hanging over the breast ; 
and some others of the same loose texture, and mixed colours, falling on 
the tail ; the wing-coverts have likewise some black feathers intermixed ; 
the quills plain white ; and the tail the same, except one feather wholly 
black ; legs black.” 
This description seems inapplicable inasmuch as it is that of a hybrid ; 
if the dark birds and the white ones be considered identical, then it might 
be used, but even then it is quite a mixed bird that is described. 
Sharpe considered all the Reef-Herons to be dimorphic, and consequently 
made use of the name without investigating the question of subspecies 
whatever. 
If all the dark birds lumped under the one specific name by Sharpe be 
laid out according to localities, the merest glance will show that some 
strongly-marked subspecies are recognisable, while it is just as certain that 
long series will show many subspecies not so easily noted. 
In the case of these dark birds, the New Zealand race is clearly defined 
by means of its coloration, and the Australian form is also at once noticeable. 
White birds do not, of course, show any variation in coloration, and, if 
considered dimorphisms, would have to follow their dark forms. 
VOL. m. 
453 
