La-pay, Ticao.

Bohol (McGregor); Calamianes (Bourns & Worcester); Catanduanes (Whitehead); Leyte (Steere Exp.); Luzon (Meyen, Whitehead, McGregor); Marinduque (Steere Exp.); Mindoro (Bourns & Worcester); Negros (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, Whitehead); Palawan (Bourns & Worcester); Panay (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester); Romblon (McGregor); Samar (Whitehead); Sibuyan (McGregor); Tablas (Bourns & Worcester); Tawi Tawi (Bourns & Worcester); Ticao (McGregor). Celebes, Indian and Malay Peninsulas, Ceylon, China, Greater Sunda Islands.

Adult male.—“Forehead, crown, long occipital crest, a streak down back of neck, one on each side of neck, and another on each side from gape to nape slaty black; chin and throat white, rest of head and neck ferruginous red, paler and buff on sides of head and middle of fore neck; long feathers overhanging upper breast buffy white, streaked with black and chestnut; lower hind neck, back, rump, and upper tail-coverts, wings and tail slaty gray, back darker; quills and tail-feathers blackish; scapulars with long pointed rufous ends; middle of breast and abdomen and lower tail-coverts slaty black; sides of breast rich chestnut; flanks ashy gray; thigh-coverts cinnamon; wing-lining mostly ferruginous. Length, 965; tail, 19; wing, 368; tarsus 140; bill from gape, 152.” (Blanford.)

“Upper mandible dark brown, the margins dusky yellow as far back as the nostrils, produced to the eye; margins from nostrils to gape dark brown; anterior half of lower mandible clear yellow; the posterior half dull yellow; gape and facial skin greenish yellow; edges of the eyelids yellow; feet and toes yellowish; the front of the tarsus and toes glossy brown; claws dark horn-color; iris yellow.” (Oates.)

“Adult female.—Similar to the male, but not quite so bright, and the black crest plumes not quite so long.

“‘Nestling.—Crown of head, quills, and tail lavender-brown; throat and chin pure white; sides of head and upper neck rufous; lower neck rufous-gray, the feathers on the sides being centered with brown; lower plumage rufescent, each feather more or less dark-centered; thighs plain rufous; upper plumage brown, each feather edged with rufescent, more especially on the scapulars and tertiaries; upper and lower wing-coverts bluish brown, each feather broadly edged with rufous.’ (Oates.)” (Sharpe.)

“Young birds have neither crest nor lengthened plumes on scapulars or breast; upper parts brownish gray, with broad rufous edges to the feathers; crown partly gray; neck rufous, fore neck with black streaks; lower surface a mixture of buff and gray.” (Blanford.)

This species is the commonest of the large herons and may easily be identified by means of the preceding excellent descriptions. In a fine-plumaged male from Anao, Tarlac Province, Luzon, the upper mandible was dusky; lower mandible yellow, greenish toward base; upper part of legs light yellowish green, lower parts brown. Length, 1,000; wing, 375; tail, 133; tarsus, 124; culmen from frontal feathers, 136; middle toe with claw, 135; hind toe with claw, 80.

Genus ARDEA Linnæus, 1758.