Ardea garzetta Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 12 (1766), 1, 237.
Garzetta garzetta Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 118;
Hand-List (1899), 1, 197; Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 120.
Herodias garzetta Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1898), 4, 387,
fig. 91.
Egretta garzetta McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 33.
Ta-ling-daó, Cagayancillo.
Basilan (McGregor); Bohol (Everett, McGregor); Cagayancillo
(McGregor); Cebu (McGregor); Leyte (Everett); Lubang (McGregor);
Luzon (Jagor, Everett, Heriot, Bourns & Worcester, McGregor);
Mindanao (Steere Exp., Goodfellow); Mindoro (Porter);
Negros (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, Keay); Panay
(Bourns & Worcester); Romblon (McGregor); Siquijor (Bourns &
Worcester). Africa, southern Europe to central Asia, China, Japan,
Indian Peninsula, Malay Peninsula and Archipelago.
"Adult male in breeding plumage.--Everywhere snowy white, with
two elongated plumes depending from nape; dorsal plumes enormously
elongated into a beautiful tuft of feathers, which reach a little
beyond the tail and are recurved at the ends; on the fore neck some
elongated narrow plumes. 'Bill black; bare skin about the eye and
base of bill, whitish fulvescent; tarsi and shanks black, feet
greenish yellow, joints of toes spotted with black on the upper
surface; iris pale ashy yellow, with an outer circle of brownish
red.' (T. Ayres.) Length, about 508; culmen, 84; wing, 267; tail,
70; tarsus, 94.
"Adult female.--Similar to the male, but the ornamental plumes not
quite so much developed. Length, 571; culmen, 88; wing, 287; tail,
99; tarsus, 95; middle toe with claw, 93.
"Adult in winter plumage.--Differs from that of the summer plumage
in the want of all the ornamental plumes.
"Young.--Resembling the winter plumage of the adult." (Sharpe.)
The lesser and little white egrets are birds of wide distribution,
usually found singly along sandy shores or in the vicinity of mangrove
swamps.
Genus DEMIGRETTA Blyth, 1846.
In size of body and proportional size of bill, legs, and feet this
genus is very similar to Egretta but the legs are feathered nearer
to the heel and the plumage is normally slate-blue.