CEYLON WATER BIRDS. S15 
E.—Size medium, about 23; plumage dark; chin and 
throat richly variegated ; bill slender, much longer 
than tarsus ; 10 tail feathers. 
Dupetor flavicollis (Black Bittern). 
ARDEA MANILLENSIS (Blanford, Vol. IV., p. 381). 
ARDEA PURPUREA (Legge, p. 1132). 
The Eastern Purple Heron. 
Description.—Forehead, crown, and crest black ; chin and 
throat white; remainder of head and neck cinnamon-rufous, 
with long black streaks down the back and sides ; upper parts 
from lower hind-neck, including wings and tail, slaty-gray, 
darker on the back, and almost black on the wing quills and 
tail feathers ; scapulars long, pointed, and rufous at the ends. 
The long feathers of the lower neckare pale buff streaked with 
chestnut and black ; sides of the breast reddish-chestnut ; the 
centre of the breast, the abdomen, and under tail coverts slaty- 
black ; the thighs cinnamon ; wing lining pale ferruginous. 
Young birds are drab and fawn, with sometimes an almost 
golden tinge, and lack the crest and elongated feathers on the 
back and breast. 
Bill yellowish-brown above, yellowish underneath ; iris 
clear yellow ; naked skin on face yellowish-green ; legs and 
feet reddish-brown and yellow. 
Length about 38; wing 14-5; tail 5-25; tarsus 5°5; bill 
from gape 6. 
Distribution.—Common throughout the low-country. Occurs 
throughout India, Burma, and the whole Oriental region. 
Habits—May be seen about most tanks, brackish lagoons, 
and marshes, often skulking in long grass and reeds. The 
main breeding season is during the rains of the north-east 
monsoon, but where there is a favourable water supply the 
birds breed again in June. The nest may be placed in trees, 
on the flat tops of screw pines, or in thick clumps of bulrushes. 
In the former case it is a large platform of twigs ; in the two 
last dried reeds and flags may enter into its composition. The 
eggs, three or four in number, are pale bluish-green, almost 
regular oval in shape, and measure about 2°19 by 1°58. 
