Descriptions of new species of Birds obtained near Calcutta. 175 XXIII. — Descriptions of some new species of Birds found in the neighbourhood of Calcutta. By Edward Blyth, Esq., Curator to the Museum of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. To Richard Taylor, Esq. Dear Sir, November 14tli, 1843. The Hiiidoostan steamer direct from Calcutta to Suez departs tomorrow, by which opportunity I shall forward the present com-munication. I have obtained several rare species of birds since penning the first part of this paper*, but only one novelty, which I proceed to describe. It is a gigantic species of true heron. Ardea nobilis, nobis. Length of a male in first plumage 50 inches by 7^ feet in alar expanse ; wing from bend 22|^ in. ; bill to frontal plumes 7| in., and to gape 9f in. ; bare part of tibia 6^ in. ; tarsi 10 in. ; middle toe and claw 6^ in. ; hind toe and claw 4 in. General form robust, but otherwise as in ^. cinerea, which latter is a mere pygmy beside the new species, and the dimensions given of this would probably be considerably exceeded in a mature specimen. Colom-of the upper parts pure ashy, somewhat darker than in A. cinerea ; all the wing-coverts tipped with brown, denoting, with other indications, the immature dress : crown, ear-coverts, nape, and hind-neck to near its base a fine cinnamon rufous, deepest on the coronal feathers, which are elon-gated, but contain no slender attenuated crest-plumes, as would probably be the case in the adult ; nevertheless, a full massy crest is formed by them, the longest feathers of which measure 4^ in. : the frontal feathers immediately over the bill are dark ashy : throat white ; front of the neck the same, variegated in the usual manner of this genus with dark ashy, passing into nigrescent about the angular bend of the neck : shoulder-tuft varied with brown, having a white mesial streak on each feather : under parts dull white, laterally margined with mingled brown and ashy. Irides pale yellow. Beak blackish, the lower mandible dull white except towards the tip and along the edge : cere dusky, the orbits and a band in front of the eye yellowish : legs blackish : labial feathers deeply stained with cinnamon-brown. This superb heron was shot on the salt-water lake above Calcutta. It is probably the largest of the genus, exceeding considerably, I think, an immense and robustly formed African heron which I saw in the collection of Dr. Andrew Smith. Possibly it may be the A. sumatrana of Raffles, ' Lin. Trans.' xiii. 325, vaguely described as " a large sub-crested heron, with long slender neck and bill (that of A. nobilis is by no means long and slender), of a bluish gray, variegated * See our last Number, page 113.
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