"Adult male.--Above black, glossed with metallic green and purple, more especially on hind neck; entire back and upper tail-coverts glossed with metallic green; tail-feathers black, not to be confounded with the under tail-coverts, which are white; the outer retrices black, graduated, and forming a fork; wing-coverts like the back, but more distinctly glossed, especially on the lesser series, which are metallic purplish red; quills black, glossed with slaty externally and with metallic green on the inner face of all the quills, crown of head blue-black as far as occiput; nape and entire neck white as well as the throat; chin less thickly clothed with feathers; breast black, slightly glossed with metallic green, but more strongly with reddish purple, especially on the fore neck and chest; abdomen and under tail-coverts white, the long ones stiffened and resembling tail-feathers; axillars and under wing-coverts black with a gloss of metallic green. 'Bill in general black, tinged with red on culmen, tips, and margins; legs and toes red; claws reddish horn-color; iris crimson; eyelids and facial skin plumbeous.' (Oates.) Length, about 915; culmen, 914; wing, 508; tail, 183; tarsus, 179. "Adult female.--Similar to the male. 'Iris very pale, almost whitish hue.' (H. J. Rainey.) Length, 914; culmen, 145; wing, 470; tail, 183; tarsus, 157. "Young birds differ from the adults in being much browner and not having so much gloss, the black feathers on the head being replaced by bronzy brown, the purplish gloss on the wing-coverts almost absent, and the purple gloss on the breast being replaced by dull bronzy brown. The forehead generally shows a basal line of white feathers, but these are also apparent in some of the old birds, and are apparently shed by them in course of time." (Sharpe.) Specimens obtained in Mindoro have an unfeathered band along the under side of the forearm. The skin of this space is dark crimson. "Rather rare and very shy. Usually seen soaring at great heights. Occasionally met with perching on dead trees, or wading about the rice-fields." (Bourns and Worcester MS.) Suborder ARDEÆ. Family ARDEIDÆ. Bill generally slender, straight, and compressed; culmen slightly curved near its tip; tarsus covered with transverse plates or large hexagonal scales; toes long; claws well developed, usually sharp and curved; hind toe well developed, its claw larger than claw of middle toe, the latter pectinate. Genera. a1. Rectrices twelve. b1. Bare portion of tibio-tarsus equal to or exceeding the inner toe with claw. c1. Middle toe with claw as long as tarsus or longer; claw of hind toe more than half the length of hind toe itself and but slightly curved; plumage variegated, never white. ... Pyrrherodia (p. 162) c2. Middle toe with claw shorter than tarsus; claw of hind toe curved; plumage nearly uniform slate-gray or largely white.