Ardea longicollis Meyen, 1834a: 104 .

Now: Egretta eulophotes (Swinhoe, 1860) . See Sharpe (1898: 98), Hartert (1920: 1238).

Holotype (lost): ZMB not catalogued (Lichtenstein 1832, Nr. 69 sub “ Ardea leuce ?”), collected by Meyen in “ October ” [= 1 October 1831; see Meyen 1835: 258] in “ Manila ” [= Talim Island, Luzon; see below]. The type was already noted as missing by von Martens (1866: 27).

Type locality. “ Manila ” (Meyen 1834a: 104–105). In his travel report, Meyen (1835: 258) specified that he collected this heron on 1 October on Talim Island . We thus ascertain the type locality as Talim Island, Luzon, Philippines.

Remarks. The taxonomic identity of Ardea longicollis Meyen has long been uncertain, despite a detailed description of the holotype provided by Meyen (1834a). Wiegmann (1835: 315) found the holotype (which he seems to have examined personally) not separable from Ardea flavirostris Wagler (1827: Ardea sp. 9), which is a synonym of Ardea alba Linnaeus, 1758 (cf. Sharpe 1898: 270). Reichenow (1877: 271) synonymized the species with Ardea nivea S.G. Gmelin, 1770, which in turn is a synonym of Ardea (= Egretta) garzetta Linnaeus, 1766 (Hartert 1920: 1239; Mlíkovský 2011a: 92). Sharpe (1898: 98) synonymized it with Ardea (his Herodias) timoriensis Lesson (1831: 575), which in turn is a synonym of Ardea alba Linnaeus, 1758 (cf. Sharpe 1898: 270, Oberholser 1919: 558, Peters 1931: 110). Meyen (1834a: 104–105) described his longicollis as a large, whiteplumaged heron with yellow bill, black legs and yellow feet. The latter combination of characters is unique for the Chinese Egret Egretta eulophotes (Swinhoe, 1860), among herons and egrets of the Philippines (Kennedy et al. 2000).

Ardea longicollis Meyen, 1834a, antedates Herodias (= Egretta) eulophotes Swinhoe, 1860 . Despite this, prevailing usage of the latter name must be maintained (ICZN 1999, Art. 23.9), because Ardea longicollis Meyen, 1834, has not been used as a valid name after 1899 (ICZN 1999, Art. 23.9.1), and Egretta eulophotes (Swinhoe) has been used as a valid name for the Chinese Egret with sufficient frequency, during a sufficiently long period and by a sufficient number of authors to fulfill the conditions of ICZN (1999, Art. 23.9.1.2). The required references (ICZN 1999, Art. 23.9.2) include Payne (1979: 214), Hancock & Kushlan (1984: 134), Humphrey & Bain (1990: 130), Brazil (1991: 62), Dickinson et al. (1991: 104), Martínez-Vilalta & Motiz (1992), Mackinnon & Phillips (1993: 63, 2000: 231), Inskipp et al. (1996: 102), Coates & Bishop (1997: 237), Tomek (1999), Litvinenko & Šibaev (1999, 2000), Kennedy et al. (2000: 29), Collar (2001: 111), Dickinson (2003: 88), Stepanân (2003: 43), Kushlan & Hancock (2004: 200), Weerd & Ploeg (2004), Robson (2005: 146), Wei et al. (2005), Zheng (2005: 11), Koblik et al. (2006: 88), Liang et al. (2007), Zhou et al. (2008), Arlott (2009: 32), Dickinson & Remsen (2013: 191), Kang et al. (2013: 618) and Wand et al. (2013). Herewith, Herodias eulophotes Swinhoe, 1860, becomes a nomen protectum, and Ardea longicollis Meyen, 1834, becomes a nomen oblitum in the sense of ICZN (1999). Also, this heron species was earlier known under the specific name eulophotes in major works (Hartert 1920: 1241, Peters 1931: 111, La Touche 1934: 450, Vaurie 1965: 70).