ART. 16. BIRDS FEOM NORTH CELEBES ^RILEY. 31 



is darker than that form, especially on the sides of neck, and the 

 tips of the long nuchal plumes are blackish. It would perhaps be 

 nearer the truth to treat both the above and Nycticorax manillensis 

 as only forms of the wide-ranging N. caledonicus. 



The adult male from Celebes has the back warm blackish brown 

 with a plumbeous cast that varies in different lights; this is probably 

 due to age, as one of the Philippine birds shows an approach to this 

 condition. The type of N. minahassae is evidently an extreme mani- 

 festation of this plumage. 



55. BUTO RIDES JAVANICA JAVANICA (Horsfield). 



One male, Kapas Bay, July 22, 1914; three males (one immature) 

 and one female, Koeala Prang, June 4 and 13, 1916; one male, 

 Toboli, October 21, 1916. 



I have compared this series with two adult males from Java, and 

 the latter appear to have a little more pronounced white edging to the 

 wing-coverts; otherwise they are similar, and until the species has 

 been revised they had better remain as above. 



Since the above was written, Hartert has published ^^ a review of 

 the species and has reduced them all to forms of Butorides sttiatus, 

 a South American species; a proceeding to which naturalists will 

 hardly agree. 



56. ARDEOLA SPECIOSA (Horsfield). 



Four males and four females Toli Toli, December 13-18, 1914; 

 one male, Toboli, October 23, 1916 ; three females, Koelawi, January 

 26, and February 1, 1917; one male and one female, Rano Lindoe, 

 March 4 and 10,1917. 



This series, with a small series from Java, the latter consisting 

 of young not yet from the nest and adults, convinces me that 

 Meyer and Wiglesworth's ^^ description of what they call the winter 

 plumage is really that of the immature. All the birds in the Celebes 

 series taken in October and December are just like the breeding 

 adults, except they lack the long nuchal plumes, the dorsal plumes 

 are a little shorter and have more of a brownish tinge, and the 

 scapulars usually lack the buff. The specimens taken in January 

 and March have the head and neck more or less marked with blackish ; 

 the back blackish-brown ; the scapulars hair brown with some slight 

 buffy shaft streaks. The specimen taken March 4 (No. 250729) has 

 begun to assume the adult plumage ; the blackish streaks have almost 

 entirely disappeared from the head and neck, the slaty back plumes 

 have begun to appear, and there are buffy feathers present in the 



BO Vogel palaark Fauna, vol. 2, pt. 4, 1920,. p. 1250. 

 6' Birds of Celebes, vol. 2, 1898, p. 830. 



