178 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 
Genus IXOBRYCHUS Billberg, 1828.* 
Small, wing 150 mm. or les##bill slender and sharp, plumage reddish 
brown, cinnamon-rufous, and white with some mixture of black. 
Species. 
a’. Primaries black’or blackish Drow. -.-<.<<opecccotsctacetectsceeen nb szeene sinensis (p. 178) 
a?, Primaries cinnamon-rufous like back...............-........-------. cinnamomeus (p. 179) 
149. IXOBRYCHUS SINENSIS (Gmelin). 
LITTLE YELLOW BITTERN, 
Ardea sinensis GMELIN, Syst. Nat. (1788), 1, pt. 2, 642. 
Ardetta sinensis SHARPE, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 227; Hand- 
List (1899), 1, 202; Oates, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1902), 2, 131; McGrecor 
and WorcESTER, Hand-List (1906), 35. 
Ba-cau birg-ey, Manila; rat, Calayan. 
Calayan (McGregor); Luzon (Heriot, Whitehead, McGregor); Mindanao 
(Mearns, Goodfellow); Mindoro (Bourns & Worcester); Sulu (Guillemard) ; 
Tablas (Bourns & Worcester). Japan, China, Korea, Indo-Chinese countries, 
Indian Peninsula; Malay Peninsula and islands to Australia in winter. 
“Adult male——Above earthy brown, slightly tinged with rufous, more 
especially on the scapulars; wing-coverts clay-brown, greater series rather 
paler on the edges; edge of wing white; alula, primary-coverts, and 
quills black, slightly shaded with ashy; inner secondaries brown, tinged 
with rufous; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts ashy gray, the last 
somewhat darker; tail-feathers black; crown and nape black; sides of 
face, ear-coverts, and sides of neck vinous, becoming chestnut on the 
long frill-like feathers of the latter; throat white, mesially streaked with 
yellowish buff, like the rest of under surface; thighs more tawny-rufous ; 
lower abdomen and under tail-coverts white; on each side of upper breast 
a patch of dependent feathers, of a blackish ground with yellowish-buff 
margins; under wing-coverts and axillars pure white; quills slaty below, 
with paler gray at the ends. ‘Eyelids and facial skin green; upper man- 
dible dark brown on the culmen, and pinkish brown on the margins; lower 
mandible pinkish brown, turning to green towards the tip; the toes and 
tibio-tarsal joint pale yellow; tarsus dull flesh-color; claws horn-color ; 
iris yellow.’ (Oates). Length, 394; culmen, 51; wing, 124; tail, 38; 
tarsus, 44. 
“Adult female.—Differs from the male in being more rufous above, the 
feathers of the upper surface being rufous-brown with yellowish-buft 
margins; the crown is black as in the male, the ear-coverts and sides 
of the face are yellowish buff, and the neck-frill is also washed with the 
latter color; the under surface of the body the same as that of the male, 
but having the mesial lines more strongly indicated by tawny-buff centers 
to the feathers of the throat and fore neck. ‘Upper mandible dark brown, 
* Cf, Allen, Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. (1907), 24, 36. 
