310 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



salt water creeks, and fresh water streams, in paddy fields, in 

 fact wherever there is water. It is, I believe, migratory at the 

 Andamans, but it was still to be seen when I left the islands 

 in May/' 



931— Butorides javanicus, Eorsf. (15.) 



Specimens from the Andamans and Nicobars agree precisely 

 with others from the continent of India, but they seem to 

 average somewhat smaller. A fine, perfectly adult male, as 

 the plumage shows, measured as follows : — 



Length, 1675 ; expanse, 25 ; tail, from vent, 2*5 ; wing, 

 6*75 ; tarsus, 3 ; bare part of tibia, 0*5 ; bill, at front, 2*45 ; 

 from gape, 31 ; wings, when closed, reach to end of tail ; 

 weight, about 6 ozs. 



Front of tarsus, toes and claws, brownish green ; bare 

 portion of tibia and back of tarsus, dirty greenish yellow ; soles 

 clear, slightly greenish yellow ; bill black ; lower portion of 

 lower mandible, from base to tip, edged pale horny; irides 

 bright yellow ; naked skin round eye dull green, tinged yellow 

 in front ; eyelids deep green. 



We obtained a young bird, probably about eight months old, 

 which, as it differs very markedly from the adult, and has not 

 yet I believe been described, may as well be more particularly 

 noticed now. The head is dark brown with a greenish tinge ; 

 each feather with a narrow central rufescent white stripe ; the 

 crest little developed. The back and scapulars brown, tinged 

 greenish, each scapular with a triangular fulvous white spot 

 at the tip. The wing coverts brown, broadly margined with 

 pale rufous and with a long triangular white or rufescent 

 white spot at the tips ; all the secondaries and primaries 

 with a pure white spot at the tips, largest and most con- 

 spicuous in the later primaries. The entire lower parts fulvescent 

 white, whitest along the chin and the centre of the throat, every- 

 where streaked, broadly on the breast and abdomen, and more 

 narrowly on the throat and sides of the neck, with dark brown, 

 and strongly tinged on the cheeks and ear-coverts, and in 

 patches elsewhere, with pale ferruginous. The vent and lower 

 tail coverts less perceptibly streaked, but mottled with pale 

 brown. 



In a somewhat older bird the crest is longer, the head 

 more decidedly green, the fulvous white stripes reduced to 

 mere lines, and many of the triangular spots of the coverts have 

 diminished in size, and those of the scapulars have disappeared ; 

 the striation of the lower parts is paler, and not so marked. 



