Genus HERODIAS Boie, 1822.
Of very large size and plumage entirely pure white.
138. HERODIAS TIMORIENSIS (Lesson).
TIMOR WHITE EGRET.
- Ardea timoriensis Lesson, Traité d’Orn. (1831), 575.
- Herodias timoriensis Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 98; Hand-List (1899), 1, 195; Mearns, Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. (1905), 18, 89; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 33.
Luzon (McGregor); Mindanao (Mearns). Northern China and Japan to Australia.
Adult male in breeding plumage.—“Entirely pure white; a bunch of elongated plumes on the back scarcely reaching beyond the tail. ‘Bill beautiful orange; naked space before and behind the eye fine greenish yellow; legs above the knee pale dull yellow, this color continued down the center of the inner part of the tarsi; remainder of tarsi and feet black.’ (Gould.) Length, 762; culmen, 112; wing, 381; tail, 160; tarsus, 132 to 162.” (Sharpe.)
The following data are from the Luzon specimen which I have recorded: Killed on the Laguna de Bay, Luzon, March 16, 1906. Sexed by the taxidermist as a male. Entire legs and feet black; bill yellow. Dorsal plumes reaching little beyond base of tail, the bird being in rather poor plumage. Tarsus, 159; bill from gape, 140; culmen from frontal feathers, 114. This species is the largest as well as the rarest of the pure white herons known from the Philippine Islands.
Genus EGRETTA Forster, 1817.
This genus appears to be closely related to Mesophoyx but the bill is longer and more slender; toes and claws shorter; culmen longer than middle toe with claw, primaries and secondaries about equal in length.