BUTORIDKS. 37 



received from the Director of the Western i\ustraiian Museum, Perth, taken from a rocicy islet 

 off Cape Peron, twenty miles south of Freemantle, Western Australia, on the 20th November, 

 1900, measure : — Length (A) 2-11 x 1-44 inches; (B) 2-02 x 1-33 inches; (C) 1-95 x 1-42; 

 these eggs were in an advanced stage of incubation. A set of four taken by Mr. S. Robinson 

 at Buckiinguy Station, near Warren, New South Wales, on the 2nd December, 1906, measures : — - 

 Length (A) 2-04 x 1-47 inches; (B) i-gy x 1-47 inches; (C) 2-07 x 1-43 inches; (D) 2-08 

 X 1-4 inches. 



Young birds have the crown of the head and the back dark brown, all the feathers of the 

 former narrowly streaked and the latter broadly centred with buffy-white, hind neck a paler 

 brown with a buffy-white streak down the centre of the feathers; rump white tinged with 

 chestnut ; upper wing-coverts and scapulars like the back, but the buffy-white is more spot- 

 like and the feathers show more or less distinct chestnut cross-bars; quills chestnut shaded with 

 dusky-grey, with a subterminal blackish cross-bar and tipped with white, the outer primaries 

 with butfy-white; tail-feathers chestnut, with a blackish subterminal cross-bar and buffy-white 

 tip ; sides of head buffy-white with blackish margins to the feathers ; throat and centre of the 

 lower breast dull white, the feathers on the sides of the body dull buffy-white, with a dark brown 

 streak down the centre; fore-neck brown streaked with rich buffy-white; thighs pale sandy-buff 

 broadly streaked with brown. \\'ing ir2 inches. 



In semi-adult birds the crown of the head and the nape is black, the wings and back have 

 lost nearly all the buffy-white streaks and spots, the scapulars and back are of a brownish hue, 

 the rump more distinctly washed with a clearer grey, and destitute of the white tips at the ends 

 of the primaries and the tail feathers; the hind-neck is light chestnut-brown streaked with 

 buffy-white; the under parts are whiter, and the remaining brown streaks on the feathers 

 narrower and slightly lighter ; thighs similar ; under tail-coverts dull white. Wing measurement 

 same as young bird, ii-2 inches. Both birds described are males, but the females are similar. 



September and the two following months constitute the usual breeding season in Eastern 

 Australia, but some of the late broods do not leave the nest until the end of February, or early 

 in March. Like many other species, the breeding season of the Nankeen Night Heron is greatly 

 influenced and regulated by the rainfall. 



O-en-as BTJTOI^IIDES, Blyth. 

 Butorides stagnatilis. 



LITTLE MANGROVE BITTERN. 



Ardetta stagnatilis, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1847, p. 221 ; id., Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. YI., pi. 67 

 (1848). 



Butoroidns javanica (nee Horsf.), Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. II., p. 317 (1865). 



JJuiorides stagnatilis. Sharps, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mas., Vol. XXVI., p, 18.3 (1898). 



Adult male, in breeding plumage. — Gciteral colour above slaty-grei/ tvashed ivith green ; tipper 

 )i>ing-coverls dark green externally edged tvilh ochreons huff : (jiiilla bhdslt-grey ; lengthened scajndar 

 plumes hluish-greij washed with green, their shafts pale greyish-ivhite ; forehead, crown of the head, 

 lengthened feathers on the nape and a streak below the eye dark glossy-green ; neck and elongated 

 feathers on (he fore-neck rusty olive-brown, the centre of the hind-neck slightly glossed with green; 

 ceiif re of throat and upper portion of the fore-neck white, conspicuously streaked ivith black ; breast, 

 thighs and under tail-coverts pale olive-broivn, bases of most of the feathers washed with grey. Total 

 length in the flesh 17 inches, wing 7-7, tail 2'S, bill o, tarsus 2. 

 10 



