178 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 



Genus IXOBHYCHUS Billberg, 1828.* 



Small, wing 150 mm. or less; bill slender and sharp, plumage reddish 

 brown, cinnamon-rufous, and white with some mixture of black. 



Species. 



cS Primaries black or blackish brown sinensis (p. 178) 



a^ Primaries cinnamon-rufous like back cinnamomeus (p. 179) 



149. IXOBRYCHUS SINENSIS (Gmelin). 

 LITTLE YELLOW BITTERN. 



Ardea sinensis Gmelin, Syst. Nat. (1788), 1, pt. 2, 642. 



Ardetta sinensis Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 227; Hand- 

 List (1899), 1, 202; Gates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 131; McGregor 

 and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 35. 



Ba-cau biiTg-ey, Manila; rat, Calayan. 



Calayan {McGregor) ; Luzon (Heriot, Whitehead, McGregor) ; Mindanao 

 (M earns, Goodfellow) ; Mindoro (Bourns & Worcester); Sulu {Guillemard) ; 

 Tablas (Bourns <£ Worcester). Japan, China, Korea, Indo-Chinese countries, 

 Indian Peninsula ; Malay Peninsula and islands to Australia in winter. 



"Adult male. — Above earthy brown, slightly tinged with rufous, more 

 especially on the scapulars ; wing-coverts clay-brown, greater series rather 

 paler on the edges; edge of wing white; alula, primary-coverts, and 

 quills black, slightly shaded with ashy; inner secondaries brown, tinged 

 with rufous; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts ashy gray, the last 

 somewhat darker; tail-feathers black; crown and nape black; sides of 

 face, ear-coverts, and sides of neck vinous, becoming chestnut on the 

 long frill-like feathers of the latter; throat white, mesially streaked with 

 yellowish buff, like the rest of under surface; thighs more tawny-rufous; 

 lower abdomen and under tail-coverts white ; on each side of upper breast 

 a patch of dependent feathers, of a blackish ground with yellowish-buff 

 margins; under wing-coverts and axillars pure white; quills slaty below, 

 with paler gray at the ends. 'Eyelids and facial skin green ; upper man- 

 dible dark brown on the culmen, and pinkish brown on the margins ; lower 

 mandible pinkish brown, turning to green towards the tip; the toes and 

 tibio-tarsai joint pale yellow; tarsus dull flesh-color; claws horn-color; 

 iris yellow.' (Oates). Length, 394; culmen, 51; wing, 124; tail, 38; 

 tarsus, 44. 



"Adult female. — Differs from the male in being more rufous above, the 

 feathers of the upper surface being rufous-brown with yellowish-buff 

 margins; the crown is black as in the male, the ear-coverts and sides 

 of the face are yellowish buff, and the neck-frill is also washed with the 

 latter color; the under surface of the body the same as that of the male, 

 but having the mesial lines more strongly indicated by tawny-buff centers 

 to the feathers of the throat and fore neck. "^Upper mandible dark brown, 



* Cf. Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. (1907), 24, 36. 



