394 



with a guttural croak. The native names in several languages- 

 mean Blind Heron. It feeds chiefly on frogs and crabs, occa- 

 sionally on fish, insects, &c., and is highly esteemed as food by 

 many of the inhabitants of India. It breeds in different parts of 

 the country from May to September, but in the Carnatic about 

 December, makes a stick nest on a tree, several pairs often 

 nesting in company, and lays from four to six greenish-blue eggs y 

 measuring, on an average, 1/48 by 1*17. 



1566. Ardeola bacchus. TJ* Chinese Pond-Heron. 



Buphus bacchus, Bonap. Consp. Av. ii, p. 127 (1855). 



Ardeola prasinosceles, Sioink. Ibis, I860, p. 64 ; Hume, S. F. ii r 



p. 483; Walden in BlytWs Birds Burm. p. 160; Hume fy Dav. 



S. F. vi, p. 481 ; Anderson, Yunnan Eaped., A.ves, p. 689 ; Hume, 



Cat. no. 930 bis ; Gates, B. B. ii, p. 253. 

 Ardeola leucoptera, apud Hume, S. F. xi, p. 334, nee Bodd. 

 Ardeola bacchus, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxvi, p. 211. 



Fig. 04. Head of A. bacchus (winter plumage). \. 



Coloration. In breeding-plumage the chin and throat are white j 

 remainder of head and neck, with long lanceolate nuchal crest y 

 dark chestnut ; elongate breast-plumes the same, but blackish 

 towards the ends ; back and some of the scapulars blackish slaty ; 

 remainder of body, wings and tail white, outer two or three 

 primaries brownish at the tip. 



Winter plumage similar to that of A. grayi. 



Bill yellow in middle, black on terminal inch, bluish at base ; 

 bare orbital skin greenish yellow ; irides golden yellow; tarsi and 

 toes pale yellowish green ; soles and tibia3 pale yellow. 



Length 21 ; tail 2'3 ; wing 9 ; tarsus 2'3 ; bill from gape 3-1. 



Distribution. Japan, China, Burma, Malay Peninsula, and Borneo. 

 Found together with A. grayi in Manipur, Karennee, and Tenas- 

 serim, also in the Andaman Islands. 



Genus BUTORIDES, Blyth, 1849. 



With this genus we pass to the crepuscular and nocturnal 

 Herons, leading to the Bitterns. Butorides is distinguished from 

 Ardeola by having no separate nuptial plumage, by being dark- 

 coloured throughout, by having the tibia feathered to within a 

 short distance (half an inch in the Indian species) of the joint, 

 and especially bv having a shorter tarsus and smaller feet, the- 

 middle toe and claw being about equal to the tarsus, but much 



