Ardea purpurea var. manilensis Meyen, Acta
Acad. Leop. Carol. (1834), 16, suppl. 102.
Phoyx manillensis Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 63,
pl. 1.
Ardea manillensis Blanford, Fauna Brit. India Bds. (1898), 4, 381.
Pyrrherodias manillensis Sharpe, Hand-List (1889), 1, 194; Oates,
Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 111, McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List
(1906), 32.
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.
The herons of this typical genus are of large size and except in
plumage differ little from the members of Pyrrherodia but the bill
is comparatively heavier and the claws much shorter; tarsus two to
two and one-half times the length of hind toe with claw.
Species.
a1. Crown and neck white (gray in young); crest black. ... cinerea
(p. 163)
a2. Crown, neck, and crest gray similar to the rest of the
plumage. ... sumatrana (p. 165)