172 MANUAL OF PHILIPPINE BIRDS. 



Genus GORSACHIUS Bonaparte, 1855. 



This genus resembles Nycticorax 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 1 . 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 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; BLANFOBD, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1898), 

 4, 398, fig. 97; GATES, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 125; MCGREGOR 

 and WORCESTER, Hand-List (1906), 34. 



Balabac (Everett) ; Basilan (Af earns) ; Cebu (Bourns & Worcester) ; Guima- 

 ras (Steere Exp.) ; 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 slightly 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 



