THE MALAYAN TIGER BITTERN. 261 



coverts and tail slaty brown ; chin and throat whitish ; front and sides of 

 the neck and the breast dull rufous-grey, the centre of the throat and the 

 middle line of the neck and breast streaked with black, light buff and 

 chestnut; remainder of the lower plumage dull chestnut, marked in various 

 ways with black lines and bars and with white patches; under tail-coverts 

 nearly pure white. 



Another bird, probably an adult female, is in the same plumage as the 

 male above described, except that the whole head is chestnut and there is 

 no crest of lengthened and pointed feathers. 



Another bird with a long pointed crest has the forehead, crown, and 

 crest black, each feather with one and sometimes two triangular white 

 patches ; the whole upper plumage dark brown stippled and mottled with 

 white, the feathers of the back with rather large white spots, one on each 

 feather ; sides of the head, sides of the occiput and sides of the neck dark 

 brown boldly marked with white ; quills and tail much the same as in 

 the adult male above described ; lower plumage an indescribable mixture 

 of rufescent white, pale chestnut and dark brown. 



The plumage of this bird is not well understood, and I have described 

 above three beautiful specimens in the British Museum which I take to be 

 respectively, in the order they are described, the adult male, the adult 

 female and the young. Mr. Hume (/. c.) has elucidated the question in 

 some measure ; but he procured too few specimens in the Nicobar Islands 

 to enable him to describe fully the various stages of plumage. 



Female. Legs and feet dull green ; claws horny ; irides greenish yellow ; 

 the upper mandible horny brown edged with dull green ; the lower man- 

 dible greenish horny. (Hume.} 



Male. Bare skin in front of the eye and about the base of the bill 

 green ; legs and feet greenish olive ; claws pale plumbeous. (Bourdillon.) 



Length 19 inches, tail 3'5, wing 10'3, tarsus 2'5, bill from gape 2'3. 

 The female appears to be smaller. 



The Malayan Tiger Bittern is stated by Mr. Blyth to have occurred in 

 the island of Ramree off the coast of Arrakan. Mr. Davison observed it 

 in the extreme south of Tenasserim, but did not secure a specimen. 



It has been met with in Ceylon, in Southern India and in the Nicobar 

 Islands, at Malacca and in Sumatra, and it occurs from Japan down the 

 coast of China and Cochin China to the Philippine Islands, and thence to 

 the Pelew Islands in the Pacific Ocean. 



This Tiger Bittern appears to frequent forest-streams and to be noc- 

 turnal in its habits. Little, however, is known about it. 



