ARDBTTA. 273 



Length. — 16 to 16' 75 inches, wing 6-75, tail 2*5, bare part of tibia 

 0*5 ; irides bright yellow; nude orbitar skin dull green. 



The young bird — or bird of the year — is very differently raai^ked. 

 Tho head is black, with the feathers narrowly striated mesially with 

 rufescent; sides of the neck and breast and lower parts fulvescent white, 

 the feathers edged with dark brown ; chin, throat and a line down the 

 neck white ; back and scapulars brown with a greenish tinge ; the 

 scapulars with a minute triangular white spot at the tip. Primaries 

 and secondaries dusky brown, each with a triangular white, or fulvous 

 white spot at the tip ; primary coverts the same ; wing-coverts brown, 

 broadly edged with rufescent, each feather with a rufescent or white 

 triangular spot at the tip ; edge of the wing fulvescent white. 



Hab. — Sind and throughout the greater part of India, extending 

 to Ceylon and Burmah. 



Gen. Ardetta. — Graij. 



Bill rather slender and straight; toes and claws long; tarsus short, 

 otherwise as in Butorides. Habit nocturnal. 



Ardetta flaviCOlliS, Lath.; Gray, III. Ind.Zool.pl. 66,2; Jerd.B. 

 Ind. iii. p. 753 ; Murray, Hdbk., ZooL, Sfc, Sind, p. 228. Ardea nigra, 

 Viell. ; Jerd. III. Ind. Orn. p. 16.— The Black Bittern. 



"In the breeding season the plumage is dull cinereous black ; chin 

 and throat with the feathers tipped white, or with red brown; the 

 larger feathers of the neck are mixed with white, red brown and dusky 

 black, each feather having some black at the base and tip, and more or 

 less red brown on one web only ; a stripe of golden yellow down the 

 side of the neck, widening interiorly; feathers of the back forming the 

 dorsal plume, lengthened, but not decomposed ; the feathers of the breast 

 dark ashy, slightly lengthened ; abdomen dusky, mixed with whitish ; 

 inner wing-coverts dusky reddish. The young bird has the feathers 

 slightly edged with rufous, and the throat and neck less richly coloured 

 than in the adult ; bill livid red, dusky on the culmen ; cere livid 

 purple; irides yellow, in some with an outer circle of red; legs pale 

 brown with a tinge of green in some, reddish brown in others." 



Length. — 23 to 24 inches, wing 8'5, tail 3, bill at front 3-5, tarsus 

 2 '5. — Jerdon. 



Hah. — Sind, Punjab, N. W. Provinces, Deccan, Concan, and 

 nearly throughout India, extending to Ceylon and Burmah. Affecting 

 swamps, rice fields and beds of rushes and reeds. Breeds in Sind. Mr. 

 Doig obtained the eggs of a colony of these birds in the mouth of 

 May on the Narra Canal. He says — " Once the sun is well up, they are 

 seldom seen, unless actually beaten out of the dense tamarisk and reed 

 jungle in which they lie hid." They are nocturnal feeders; the nests are 

 formed of tamarisk twigs, with sometimes a few aquatic weeds on which 

 the eggs are laid ; always four in number, broad ovals, sharp at both 

 ends, and nearly white in colour; size from r5 to 1"85 X 1"15 to I'oO 

 inches. 



35 z 



