CEYLON WATER BIRDS. 321 
Length 18; wing 8; tail 3; tarsus 2°15; bill from gape 3. 
Distribution.—Ubiquitous in the low-country wherever 
there are paddy fields or water, ascending to a fair height in 
the hills, common throughout India and Burma, ranging from 
the Persian Gulf to the Malay Peninsula. 
Habits —May be found fishing in any little pond, stream, 
tank, or paddy field, and occasionally on the seashore. When 
standing still with its head drawn in, the white portions of the 
plumage are concealed and the bird is an inconspicuous object. 
As soon as it flies off it appears to transform itself into a white 
bird with startling suddenness. 
It breeds pretty nearly all the year round. I have taken 
eggs as late as August, and the breeding season begins again 
in the November rains. It builds in colonies on trees, making 
a small platform of twigs, and generally laying four greenish- 
blue eggs measuring about 1°53 by 1:15. 
BUTORIDES JAVANICA (Blanford, Vol. IV., p. 395; 
Legge, p. 1153). 
The Little Green Bittern. 
Description.—Adults : head, down to the eyes, and the 
occipital crest black glossed with green ; a narrow black band 
under the eye ; the area between this and the black cap buft 
or whitish. The chin and throat are white; a whitish band 
washed with brown down the middle of the foreneck ; remainder 
of the head and neck ashy-gray tinged with blue. The backis 
ash-coloured, the rump dark gray, the upper tail coverts and 
tail blackish, all washed more or less with green. The scapulars 
and wing coverts are glossy green, the long scapulars with ashy- 
gray ends and white shafts; wing coverts and tertiaries edged 
with pale buff; wing quills blackish-slate ; secondaries and 
inner primaries tipped with white. The lower parts are 
slaty-gray with a brown wash on the belly and thigh coverts. 
Immature birds have the crown blackish-brown with pale 
shaft-stripes. The upper parts, including the wings and tail, 
are brownish, with pale terminal spots on the scapulars and 
wing coverts, and white spots on the tips of the quills; lower 
parts streaky white and brown. 
