254 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



two species, the present or the preceding, it refers. It may even represent 

 the winter plumage of A. speciosa, for not much importance can be 

 attached to the locality f< Malacca." On the whole, I think it better to 

 adhere to Mr. Swinhoe's clearly denned name and to reject Boddaert's. 



Genus BUTORIDES, Bl 



619. BUTOEIDES JAVANICA. 



THE LITTLE GREEN BITTERN. 



Ardea javanica, Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 190. Butorides javanica, 

 Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 752 ; Wold. Trans. Zool. Soc. viii. p. 100 ; Hume, Nests and 

 Eggs, p. 620 ; Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 351 j Hume, 8. F. ii. p. 310, iii. p. 191 ; 

 Bl. B. Burm. p. 160; Hume 8f Dav. S. F. vi. p. 483; David et Oust. Ois. 

 Chine, p. 442 ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 1153 ; Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 689 ; 

 Cripps, 8. F. vii. p. 308 ; Hume, 8. F. viii. p. 114 ; Bingham, S. F. ix. p. 197 ; 

 Oates, S. F. x. p. 243 ; Kelliam, Ibis, 1882, p. 195. 



Description. Male and female. Forehead, crown, nape and long 

 occipital crest glossy greenish black ; the upper part of the ear-coverts and 

 a line from the eye below the ear-coverts black ; the remainder of the ear- 

 coverts, the cheeks, chin and throat greyish or yellowish white ; remainder 

 of the head, the whole neck and the whole under plumage dark ashy, the 

 centre of the fore neck and breast fulvous-white; back and scapulars 

 purplish green, the feathers lengthened and pointed ; rump brown, slightly 

 ruf escent ; upper tail-coverts greenish brown ; tail dark ashy brown ; 

 wing-coverts dark glossy green, narrowly margined with whitish ; quills 

 slaty brown, more or less tinged with green on the outer webs and 

 becoming entirely green on the tertiaries ; the secondaries narrowly tipped 

 with whitish. 



Iris yellow ; facial skin green ; upper mandible black, with a longitu- 

 dinal yellow streak on the margins below the nostrils ; gape greenish 

 brown; lower mandible greenish yellow, more or less black along the 

 edges ; legs and toes green, the front of the tarsus and toes dusky ; soles 

 orange ; claws horn-colour. 



Length 18 inches, tail 2*6, wing 7'8, tarsus 2, bill from gape 3*1. The 

 female is of the same size. 



The Little Green Bittern is found over the whole of Burmah on the 

 banks of rivers and swamps where there is brushwood. 



It occurs over the greater part of India, Ceylon and the Andaman 

 Islands, in the Indo-Burmese countries, China, Cochin China, the Malay 

 peninsula and islands as far as Australia, and ranging to some of the 



