CEYLON WATER BIRDS. 325 
Bill brown on the ridge, pinkish-brown beneath ; naked skin 
on face green ; iris golden yellow; tarsus dull flesh-colour ; 
toes pale yellow. 
Length 15; wing 5:25; tail 1°8; tarsus 2; bill from 
gape 2°75. 
Distribution.—It is scattered throughout the low-country 
marshes, rare in the north and east, but fairly common in 
certain localities in the west and south. It occurs locally 
over India and Burma, but is generally rare, and is found 
through south-eastern Asia to Japan in the north-east and 
Australia in the south. 
Habits —This bird skulks about reeds and thick grass in 
marshes and swampy banks. It is much more in evidence 
during the north-east than in the south-west monsoon. The 
majority of the birds either betake themselves to very 
secluded spots to breed or are migrants. The breeding season 
is probably from May to August ; the nest is a pad of grass 
hidden in a clump of rushes or long grass ; the eggs, three to 
five in number, are pale greenish-white, measuring about 1-3 
by °95. 
ARDETTA CINNAMOMEA (Blanford, Vol. IV., p. 402). 
ARDEIRALLA CINNAMOMEA (Legge, p. 1162). 
The Chestnut Bittern. 
Description.—Male : the crown and sides of the head and 
the whole upper plumage, including the wings and tail, 
chestnut ; the wing coverts are a little paler; the shafts of 
the wing quills black. The crown is sometimes tinged with 
gray. The chin, throat, and lower parts are mainly tawny- 
brown, with a white stripe down each side of the throat and a 
dark brown streak down the centre of the fore-neck ; the lower 
breast feathers, which are concealed by the pectoral plumes, 
are blackish-brown edged with buff. 
Female: crown blackish; upper parts dull dark brown, 
lighter on the wing coverts and scapulars, both of which have 
buff edges notched with pale brown spots ; wing quills chest- 
nut, browner at the base; the tail is dull chestnut. The 
