Part 65

Ardea sacra Gmelin, Syst. Nat. (1788), 1, pt. 2, 640. Demiegretta sacra Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 137; Hand-List (1899), 1, 198; Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 122; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 33. Lepterodius sacer Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1898), 4, 391, fig. 93.

Ta-lá-bon, Ticao.

Balabac (Steere Exp., Everett); Bantayan (McGregor); Batan (McGregor); Bohol (Steere Exp., McGregor); Bongao (Everett); Cagayancillo (McGregor); Cagayan Sulu (Guillemard); Calayan (McGregor); Cebu (Murray, McGregor); Cuyo (McGregor); Fuga (McGregor); Lubang (McGregor); Luzon (Bourns & Worcester, Whitehead); Marinduque (Steere Exp.); Masbate (Bourns & Worcester); Mindanao (Bourns & Worcester, Mearns); Mindoro (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Negros (Bourns & Worcester, Keay); Panay (Bourns & Worcester); Pata (Mearns); Romblon (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Semirara (Worcester); Sibuyan (Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Siquijor (Bourns & Worcester); Sulu (Guillemard); Tablas (Bourns & Worcester); Tawi Tawi (Bourns & Worcester); Ticao (McGregor). Coast of Bay of Bengal to Australia and Oceania, north to Japan and Korea.

"Adult male in breeding plumage.--General color deep blackish slate; head almost black; feathers of upper breast elongated like those of the middle of the back, some of the latter decomposed; the elongated feathers of a paler slaty gray, and those of back reaching to end of tail; head crested and of the same color as the back; abdomen and vent-feathers tinged with ashy; a pure white streak down the center of the throat. Length, 584; culmen, 71; wing, 254; tail, 79; tarsus, 74.

"Adult female in breeding plumage.--Similar to the male, but the ornamental plumes slightly less developed. Length, 533; wing, 259.

"Young.--Paler and more sooty brown than the adults, and bleaching often to a slight earthy brown. No ornamental plumes on head, back, and chest.

"Adult birds, either in winter plumage or perhaps in the second year, are blacker than in the summer plumage. Some of these black-plumage birds have ornamental feathers which looks as if they were fully adult, and therefore they may be birds of the second year, as it is quite evident that the grayer plumaged ones are very old and perfect in livery.

"The white streak down the throat is often absent or reduced to a few spots. It appears to be absent equally in quite young birds and in old ones also, and it may be the result of inherent melanism in the species.

"The white form is exactly similar in size to the gray form, and, when adult, has the same ornamental plumes. In the Pacific islands the two forms appear to interbreed, and produce white young ones mottled or streaked with slaty gray. I have been unable to recognize any of the many forms into which the reef heron has been subdivided by naturalists. Some birds are larger, as will be seen by the measurements of the tarsi given in detail below, and these larger birds have a slightly longer wing and a heavier bill, but no specific distinctions can be founded on these variations, which are very slight." (Sharpe.)

"The color of the soft parts is excessively variable. In the adult the bare portion of the tibia varies from dark grass-green to greenish plumbeous; the back and sides of the tarsus and the greater part of the toes are generally pea-green, sometimes duller, sometimes yellower; the front of the tarsus and the first joint of the mid toe black, but sometimes these parts are green, only patched or mottled with black, and sometimes the black extends along the ridges of all the toes; the color of the bill and bare skin in front of the eye varies from sienna-brown to chocolate; sometimes the bill is a sort of light mahogany color, and the bare skin a sort of greenish brown; usually the bills are yellowish at the tips; the lower mandible is generally lighter, sometimes brownish horny, sometimes yellowish horny; and in the breeding-plumage the whole lower mandible becomes apparently a very decided, though dull, yellow; the irides vary from bright to deep yellow. I suspect, though we have not been able to work it out, that these differences in color are due both to age and to season." (Hume.)

"Quite common along the reefs. The young were met with on various occasions far inland along fresh-water streams, but we never found fully mature birds in such localities." (Bourns and Worcester MS.)

So far as observed, this species is solitary and found only on rocky shores, usually where coral flats are exposed at low tide.

Genus NYCTICORAX Forster, 1817.

Bill stout; legs rather short; tarsus about equal to middle toe with claw and little longer than exposed culmen; tarsus covered with hexagonal scales; head decorated with two or three long, slender, nuchal plumes and a full crest.

Species.

a1. Wings ashy gray; back blackish glossed with green. ... nycticorax (p. 170) a2. Wings maroon, nearly uniform with the back. ... manillensis (p. 171)

141. NYCTICORAX NYCTICORAX (Linnæus).

Common Night Heron.

Ardea nycticorax Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 142. Nycticorax nycticorax Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 146; Hand-List (1899), 1, 198; Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 123; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 33. Nycticorax griseus Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1898), 4, 397, fig. 96.

Calayan (McGregor); Luzon (Meyen, Steere Exp., McGregor); Mindanao (Everett). Africa, central and southern Europe to Indian Peninsula, Malay Peninsula, China and Japan; Greater Sunda Islands to Celebes.

"Adult male in breeding plumage.--Black above, glossed with dark green, and with a slight shade of slaty gray on the mantle; upper scapulars like the back, lower ones light ashy gray; wings entirely light ashy gray or dove-color, with a slight shade of dull oily green on secondaries; lower back, rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail clear gray or dove-color; head crested, black, and with a dark green gloss, and having two long white nuchal plumes; base of forehead white, extending above eye to behind the latter; feathers below the eye, cheeks, throat, and under parts pure white; ear-coverts and sides of neck delicate isabelline gray, extending in a collar round hind neck, and to sides of body; thighs and under tail-coverts white; under wing-coverts and axillars very pale ashy. Length, about 457; culmen, 76; wing, 267; tail, 102; tarsus, 71.

"Adult female in breeding plumage.--Similar to the male in color and having the same long white plumes on the nape. Upper mandible slaty black with a whitish streak near the edges, central portion of lower mandible flesh-color, greenish towards base; skin round the eye pale green; tarsi and feet pale yellow; iris crimson." (T. Ayres.)

"Adults in winter plumage.--Similar to the breeding plumage, but much greener on head and back, and not having the drooping white plumes on the nape.

"Young.--Brown above, varied with longitudinal triangular centers of rufous or buff to the feathers of back and wing-coverts; quills and tail-feathers tipped with white; head blackish, crest-feathers centered with rufous; sides of face and under surface of body fulvescent, streaked with dusky black, with which the feathers are margined; thighs, under wing-coverts, and axillars streaked like the sides of body; throat whitish.

"The full-grown young bird is similarly marked to the nestling described, but all the streaks and spots are much paler, the throat and under surface of the body being white, with a few dusky streaks. Judging from a specimen in the Tweeddale Collection from Canton, the adult plumage is assumed during the next breeding season, and even the white nape-plumes are put on, but the coloring of the head and back is not so bright as in older birds." (Sharpe.)

The common night heron in abundant in parts of Luzon but is not so widely distributed in the smaller islands as is the next species.

142. NYCTICORAX MANILLENSIS Vigors.

PHILIPPINE NIGHT HERON.