Ardea sacra Gmelin, Syst. Nat. (1788), 1, pt. 2, 640.
Demiegretta sacra Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 137;
Hand-List (1899), 1, 198; Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 122;
McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 33.
Lepterodius sacer Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1898), 4, 391,
fig. 93.
Ta-lá-bon, Ticao.
Balabac (Steere Exp., Everett); Bantayan (McGregor); Batan
(McGregor); Bohol (Steere Exp., McGregor); Bongao (Everett);
Cagayancillo (McGregor); Cagayan Sulu (Guillemard); Calayan
(McGregor); Cebu (Murray, McGregor); Cuyo (McGregor); Fuga
(McGregor); Lubang (McGregor); Luzon (Bourns & Worcester,
Whitehead); Marinduque (Steere Exp.); Masbate (Bourns & Worcester);
Mindanao (Bourns & Worcester, Mearns); Mindoro (Bourns &
Worcester, McGregor); Negros (Bourns & Worcester, Keay); Panay
(Bourns & Worcester); Pata (Mearns); Romblon (Bourns & Worcester,
McGregor); Semirara (Worcester); Sibuyan (Bourns & Worcester,
McGregor); Siquijor (Bourns & Worcester); Sulu (Guillemard);
Tablas (Bourns & Worcester); Tawi Tawi (Bourns & Worcester);
Ticao (McGregor). Coast of Bay of Bengal to Australia and Oceania,
north to Japan and Korea.
"Adult male in breeding plumage.--General color deep blackish slate;
head almost black; feathers of upper breast elongated like those of
the middle of the back, some of the latter decomposed; the elongated
feathers of a paler slaty gray, and those of back reaching to end
of tail; head crested and of the same color as the back; abdomen and
vent-feathers tinged with ashy; a pure white streak down the center of
the throat. Length, 584; culmen, 71; wing, 254; tail, 79; tarsus, 74.
"Adult female in breeding plumage.--Similar to the male, but the
ornamental plumes slightly less developed. Length, 533; wing, 259.
"Young.--Paler and more sooty brown than the adults, and bleaching
often to a slight earthy brown. No ornamental plumes on head, back,
and chest.
"Adult birds, either in winter plumage or perhaps in the second year,
are blacker than in the summer plumage. Some of these black-plumage
birds have ornamental feathers which looks as if they were fully
adult, and therefore they may be birds of the second year, as it is
quite evident that the grayer plumaged ones are very old and perfect
in livery.
"The white streak down the throat is often absent or reduced to a
few spots. It appears to be absent equally in quite young birds and
in old ones also, and it may be the result of inherent melanism in
the species.
"The white form is exactly similar in size to the gray form, and,
when adult, has the same ornamental plumes. In the Pacific islands
the two forms appear to interbreed, and produce white young ones
mottled or streaked with slaty gray. I have been unable to recognize
any of the many forms into which the reef heron has been subdivided by
naturalists. Some birds are larger, as will be seen by the measurements
of the tarsi given in detail below, and these larger birds have a
slightly longer wing and a heavier bill, but no specific distinctions
can be founded on these variations, which are very slight." (Sharpe.)
"The color of the soft parts is excessively variable. In the adult the
bare portion of the tibia varies from dark grass-green to greenish
plumbeous; the back and sides of the tarsus and the greater part of
the toes are generally pea-green, sometimes duller, sometimes yellower;
the front of the tarsus and the first joint of the mid toe black, but
sometimes these parts are green, only patched or mottled with black,
and sometimes the black extends along the ridges of all the toes;
the color of the bill and bare skin in front of the eye varies from
sienna-brown to chocolate; sometimes the bill is a sort of light
mahogany color, and the bare skin a sort of greenish brown; usually
the bills are yellowish at the tips; the lower mandible is generally
lighter, sometimes brownish horny, sometimes yellowish horny; and in
the breeding-plumage the whole lower mandible becomes apparently a
very decided, though dull, yellow; the irides vary from bright to deep
yellow. I suspect, though we have not been able to work it out, that
these differences in color are due both to age and to season." (Hume.)
"Quite common along the reefs. The young were met with on various
occasions far inland along fresh-water streams, but we never found
fully mature birds in such localities." (Bourns and Worcester MS.)
So far as observed, this species is solitary and found only on rocky
shores, usually where coral flats are exposed at low tide.
Genus NYCTICORAX Forster, 1817.
Bill stout; legs rather short; tarsus about equal to middle toe with
claw and little longer than exposed culmen; tarsus covered with
hexagonal scales; head decorated with two or three long, slender,
nuchal plumes and a full crest.
Species.
a1. Wings ashy gray; back blackish glossed with green. ... nycticorax
(p. 170)
a2. Wings maroon, nearly uniform with the back. ... manillensis
(p. 171)