Mr. R. Swinhoe on Formosan Ornithology. 421 
run behind a bank or among the reeds, trying to walk out of 
danger’s way. It is only on sudden alarms that they take 
wing; they then do not fly right away, but drop at no great 
distance into the first cover. 
160. Ardeola prasinosceles, Swinhoe, Ibis, 1860, p. 64. 
Professor Schlegel, of Leyden, who is well acquainted with the 
A. speciosa of Java, and has the credit of being anything but a 
species-maker, agrees with me in considering this bird distinct 
from the Malayan form. I feel myself therefore the more jus¬ 
tified in disagreeing with the opinions of such high authorities as 
Messrs. Sclater and Blyth, as expressed in this Journal (vol. iii. 
p. 52). The species of Squacco Herons will therefore now 
stand A . comata (Pallas) of Africa and Southern Europe; A. 
leucoptera (Bodd.) of India; A. speciosa (Horsf.) of Java; 
A. malaccensis of Malacca and the Deccan (A. grayi } Sykes); 
and A. prasinosceles, Swinhoe, of China. Our Ardeola is a 
constant resident in South China and Formosa, frequenting 
wet paddy-fields during the day, where they feed on grass¬ 
hoppers and almost anything they can catch, and roosting at 
night on. the banyan and other large trees. They are called 
Tsan-la , or Rice-field Herons, by the Chinese, and Paddy-birds 
by Europeans. They may often be seen together in the same 
field, as they are a common species, but they neither associate 
in flocks, nor breed in company. Their wicker nests are usually 
placed on the high branches of banyan trees; and their eggs, 
seldom exceeding three in number, are bluish white and rather 
large. The young birds are splashed with dusky on the wings, 
but they are otherwise very similar to the adult in winter dress. 
In September the summer plumage begins to fall away, and is 
replaced by the winter feathers, in which latter dress, as has 
been before remarked, the several species of the genus are almost 
undistinguishable from one another. In April the complete 
nuptial dress is again assumed. A. speciosa differs from our 
species in having a whitish head, neck, and occipital plumes, 
instead of these parts being of a bright brownish-red colour. In 
fact it is intermediate between the Chinese bird and the A. 
malaccensis , which has the head and neck yellowish grey, and the 
