90 CICONIIFORMES CHAP. 



the upper parts are black with fulvous undulations, and the lower 

 parts correspondingly mottled. The "Tiger-Bitterns " (Tigrisoma) 

 extend from Central America to North Argentina, the four or five 

 forms varying chiefly in the amount of naked skin on the throat. 

 T. Irasiliense is blackish with rusty vermiculations above, and 

 reddish-grey below, the head being mainly chestnut, and the tips 

 of the remiges and spots on the breast white. Tigrornis leucolo- 

 phus of West Africa has a narrow white crest, the neck-feathers 

 hanging loosely down, as in Tigrisoma. Zonerodius lieliosylus of 

 New Guinea is black above with fulvous bands, and has white 

 bars on the wing ; the rump and fore-neck are white with dusky 

 markings, the lower parts yellowish-white. The genus Butorides, 

 connecting the Bitterns and the Herons, exhibits somewhat 

 elongated plumes on the crown, fore-neck, and scapular region. 

 These small birds, variegated with glossy green, black, grey, and 

 chestnut, and often streaked with white, occur chiefly in the 

 Neotropical and Australian Regions, though B. mrescens at least 

 inhabits North America and B. atricapilla the Ethiopian countries. 

 Nycticorax (Night-Heron) is an almost cosmopolitan genus, 

 remarkable for the long linear blackish or white occipital feathers, 

 from two to ten in number, apparently lost for a time after breed- 

 ing. In our occasional visitor, N. griseus, of the Palaearctic, 

 Indian, and Ethiopian Eegions, and the barely separable N. naevius 

 of America, the colour is greenish-black, with grey neck, rump, 

 wings, and tail, white cheeks and lower parts. N. leuconotus of 

 the Ethiopian Eegion has the neck rufous, the back white, and 

 the under surface spotted with dusky ; N. (Pilerodius) pileatus of 

 tropical South America is white with black crown ; N. (Nyctero- 

 dius) molaceus of the same districts, which extends to the 

 United States, is plumbeous, with yellowish-white crown and 

 black stripes above, the scapulars being somewhat decomposed ; 

 N. pauper, confined to the Galapagos, is very similar ; N. (Syrigma) 

 sibilatrix of South Brazil, Chili, and Argentina, is grey, with 

 blackish head and remiges, rufous markings on the face and wing- 

 coverts, and yellowish -white breast; N. (Gorsachius) goisagi, 

 ranging from India and the Malay countries to Japan, is red-brown, 

 with buff and white lower parts, the whole plumage being marked 

 with dusky ; while N. caledonicus of the Australian Region has the 

 upper parts rich buff, the lower parts white, and only the head 

 black. Cancroma cochlearia,thQ Boat-billed Night-Heron of South 



