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.