172 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 
Genus GORSACHIUS Bonaparte, 1855. 
This genus resembles NycticiM@z in having a short stout bill, deep 
nasal groove, and stout legs and toes; it differs in having the elongated 
crest feathers shorter and wider and in the coloration of the plumage. 
The tarsus is covered with hexagonal scales but those in front are very 
wide and appear as transverse plates. 
Species. 
a, Head black; axillars barred with black and white; primaries with whitish tips. 
melanolophus (p. 172) 
a*. Head chestnut; axillars rufous, barred with black; primaries rufous at tip, 
the’ white tips obsolete) M11. 2be ee eke oie Deere goisagi (p. 174) 
143. GORSACHIUS MELANOLOPHUS (Raffles). 
MALAY BITTERN. 
Ardea melanolopha RAFFLES, Trans. Linn. Soc. (1822), 13, pt. 2, 326. 
Gorsachius melanolophus SHARPE, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 166; 
Hand-List (1899), 1, 199; BLANFoRD, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1898), 
4, 398, fig. 97; OaTEs, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1902), 2, 125; McGrrcor 
and WorcESTER, Hand-List (1906), 34. 
Balabac (Hverett); Basilan (Mearns); Cebu (Bourns & Worcester) ; Guima- 
ras (Steere Eap.); Luzon (Heriot); Masbate (Bourns & Worcester) ; Mindanao 
(Steere, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester) ; Palawan (Platen, Whitehead, White) ; 
Samar (Whitehead) ; Siquijor (Bourns € Worcester) ; Ticao (McGregor). Ceylon, 
southern India, Assam to Hainan, Greater Sunda Islands, Formosa south to Malay 
Peninsula. \ 
“Adult male—Above uniform cinnamon-rufous, wing-coverts and 
mantle with a slight ashy shade and with a certain amount of indistinct 
freckling ; alula-feathers black or shghtly mottled with rufous and having 
broad white tips; outer primary-coverts black, broadly tipped with white 
and rufous at the base; remainder of primary-coverts cinnamon-rufous 
slightly tipped with white; quills black, externally shaded with gray, 
broadly tipped with cinnamon-rufous, narrowly fringed with white at the 
ends; outer primaries with a large white terminal spot; inner secondaries 
like back; upper tail-coverts and tail dark slate-color, with a slight 
rufescent tinge at the ends of inner web; crown and long nuchal crest- 
feathers slaty gray or black; a narrow line of feathers over eye vinous- 
cinnamon, broadening out above ear-coverts and occupying the sides of 
crown, sides of neck, and sides of face; chin and center of throat pale 
isabelline brown, streaked with black down the center of throat, the black 
markings on the feathers being lateral and somewhat irregular in shape, 
the inner webs paler and cream-colored, imparting a rather broadly 
streaked appearance to the fore neck; center of breast and abdomen 
white or creamy buff, the feathers notched and barred with dusky, more 
distinct on the sides; abdomen fulvescent and under tail-coverts white, 
both of them scarcely spotted at all; under wing-coverts white, regularly 
