Malayan Ornithology. 195 



BUTORIDES JAVANICUS, Hoi'sf. 



Common, I got several in Perak. For many weeks one 

 resorted daily to the river-bank just below our camp at Kwala 

 Kangsar, and I often watched it fishing ; at length, doubtless 

 thinking itself in a dangerous neighbourhood, it took itself 

 off to other grounds. 



I also found this species plentiful among the islands of the 

 Singapore archipelago ; in my notes, in a description of a 

 trip to Pulo Mongsa, is the following : — 



" 23rd September, 1880 I found Pvilo Mongsa to be 



about half a mile long by less than a hundred yards wide, 

 thickly wooded, but fringed with a broad coi-al reef, at low 

 tide of considerable width. Near its shores were long rows of 

 fishing-stakes projecting some feet out of the water, on which 

 sat hundreds of small green Herons [Butor ides jav aniens) . 

 On our approach they rose in regular flocks ; and, so as to be 

 certain what they were, I shot three or four. They flew very 

 close to the surface of the water.^' 



Ardetta FLAVicoLLis (Lath.). The Black Bittern. 



Personally I never shot this handsome Bittern in the Malay 

 States ; but I saw skins in Malaccan collections. I killed 

 one or two in the neighbonrhood of the Canton river, South 

 China, where I found them in thick reeds and not easily 

 flushed. 



Ardetta cinnamomea (Gm.). The Chestnut Bittern. 



I found this small Chestnut Bittern plentiful in Singapore, 

 and also on the mainland, and shot many specimens in Perak, 

 Larut, Province Wellesley, and Malacca, generally flushing 

 them in paddy-fields. 



A female, which I shot at Singapore on 30th September 

 1877, was about 14 inches in length, bill at front 1^^, tarsus 

 If; irides yellow ; bill pale greenish yellow, dusky on the 

 ridge ; soles pale yellow ; upper parts and the tail ruddy 

 cbestnutj but much variegated, many of the feathers of 

 the wing-coverts and back being brown with pale yel- 

 lowish margins ; top of head dusky ; chin whitish ; pec- 

 toral gorget of ruddy yellowish-brown feathers with dark- 



