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under plumage suffused with delicate pink, which is visible 
even under the delicate grey of the back; it extends over the 
underside of the wings. An outer tail-feather, just growing, 
is a rich pink, deepest near the root, the shaft is also pmk; 
this fades as the feather grows older and more elongated ; 
outer vane of first wing-primary jet-black. 
Shot on the reef at Ovalau, October 4th, 1875, by my son. 
Stomach contained bones and scales of small fish. Other 
specimens have since been obtained and seen; and on the 
10th of October I saw what I am convinced were three ex- 
amples of Anous cinereus (Néboux). I believe that visits to 
the Yassawas and low-lying islands to windward would add 
largely to the list of sea-fowl inhabiting Fiji. I obtained A. 
cinereus abundantly, nearly twenty years ago, on the coral 
islands to the N.E. of Madagascar. 
ARDEA SACRA, Gmel. 
A reference to the synonyms of this bird, given by Drs. 
Finsch and Hartlaub in their ‘ Fauna Central-Polynesiens,’ 
and Jerdon’s ‘ Birds of India’ (vol. ii. p. 748), shows the 
confusion that exists as to the identity of the Indian and Aus- 
tralian birds. | 
I perceive that Jerdon says, on my authority, that the 
young birds are white. I have not my notes of Ceylon birds 
with me; but if J remember rightly, after so many years, I 
found it breeding near Tangalle in tolerable plenty. 
I have just obtained (2nd November) a pair of young 
ones, male and female, from the nest, of the species that in- 
habits these islands; 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 dlue 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, and 
our bird is slate-coloured, may not that fact indicate that the 
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