660 ARDEID^E. 



triangular white or fulvous white spot at the tip ; primary coverts the same ; 

 wing coverts brown, broadly edged with rufescent, each feather with a rufes- 

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



JJab. Sind and throughout the greater part of India, extending to Ceylon 

 and Burmah ; also the Malay Peninsula and islands as far as Australia, affect- 

 ing water courses, wooded streams, nullahs and large open lakes. Habits 

 nocturnal, generally issuing from its retreat at about sunset. Breeds in June 

 and July, making nests in small companies on low trees or bushes. Eggs 4 6 

 in number, greenish white. 



Gen. Ardetta. Gray. 



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

 as in Butorides. Habit nocturnal. 



1357. Ardetta flavicollis (Lath.}, Jerd., B. Ind. iii. p. 753 ; Biyth, 



B. Burm. p. 160 ; Wald., Trans. Zool. Soc. ix. p. 236; Hume, Str. F. viii. 

 p. 114. Ardea flavicollis, Lath., Ind. Orn. ii. p. 701 ; Hume, Nests and Eggs 

 Ind. B. p. 621. Ardeiralla flavicollis, Salvad., Ucc. Born. p. 353; Legge, B. 

 Ceylon p. 1159; Oates, B. Br. Burm. ii. p. 255. The BLUE 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 

 inferiorly ; feathers of the back forming the dorsal plume, lengthened, but not 

 decomposed ; the feathers of the breast dark ashy, slightly lengthened ; abdo- 

 men 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 through- 

 out India, extending to Ceylon and Burmah. Affects 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 month 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 noctur- 

 nal 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 1*5 to 1-85 x 

 1*15 to 1-30 inches. 



