86 ON A COLLECTION OF BIRDS 



of about au inch pure wliite, this color being but slightly- 

 perceptible on the second and still less on the third primary. 



A chronological revue of the essential papers hitherto 

 published on both species of the Tiger-Bittern shows the 

 following results: 



The first author mentioning a member of this genus is 

 Raffles , who described the adult stage of the Indo-Malayan 

 Tiger-Bittern from Sumatra under the name Ardea mela- 



nolopha (» is of a chesnut colour mottled with black ; 



tail and crest black; bill rather short....."). In 1836 

 Temminck (PI. Col.) described and figured the young stage 

 of A, melanolopha Raffl. under the name of Nycticorax 

 limnophilax , and says that this bird is a winter-visitant in 

 Java and probably also in other Islands of the Archipelago. 

 The figure of this bird (PI. 581) is not very carefully 

 done and gives but a general impression of the bird which 

 it ought to represent. At the same time Temminck des- 

 cribed and figured another species from Japan , Nycticorax 

 goisagi (PI. Col. V. pi. 582). Of the occipital crest he says 

 in his tolerably ample description: »L'occiput et la nuque 

 sont converts de larges et longues plumes qui forment une 

 ample touffe occipitale", but in the figure the crest, really 

 present in all our specimens, is entirely wanting. 



Temminck and Schlegel (Fauna Jap. 1842) have given 

 very accurate figures of the Japanese A. goisagi. The ori- 

 ginal specimens used (both adult and young) are contained 

 in our collection. 



Reichenbach (Grallatores pi. 148, N". 509 and 510 (1846) 

 has copied the figures of Temminck's PI. Col., but calls 

 Temminck's Nycticorax limnopliilax •» Botaurus limnicola", and 

 in 1851 he copied also the figures from the Fauna Japouica 

 under the name Botaurus Goisagi (Novit. 149, fig. 2566 — 67). 



Bonaparte (Conspectus Avium I8b0) mentions Ardea lim- 

 nophilax as a good species, while on the other hand he 

 describes a black-crested specimen from Japan (?) as the 

 adult, and the red-crested {the real Goisagi oïTemm.) a?, the 

 young stage of Gorsachius goisagi. The generic name Gor- 



Notes from tlie Leyden ]Museuzxi, "Vol. IX. 



