Printed on the plate
“Buff-backed Heron”
Bubulcus russatus
Engraved caption: BUBULCUS RUSSATUS.
Modern identification
Ardea ibis
- Certain
- Checked against the engraved caption
- Herons, Egrets, and Bitterns · Ardeidae
Why
Bubulcus russatus (Wagler's Ardea russata; Montagu's Devon bird of 1805) = Western Cattle-Egret, Ardea ibis. Gould's text keeps the eastern Bubulcus coromandus, today's Eastern Cattle-Egret, apart by its orange head and neck, and the plate's summer bird has buff only on crown, foreneck and back, the western pattern.
Sources
engraved caption; Gould's text; the plate; Birds of Europe plate 278
Who made the plate
No credit line could be read. Credit lines cut off at the sheet's foot: only the tops of the right one's letters show, unreadable.