Birds of Celebes; Ai-deidae. 853 



Nest and Eggs. In Celebes the bird builds its nest near the water in the reeds (Meyer 2). 

 "Eggs from the Amur and E. India are dark blue and measure 39 X 28—29 mm" 

 (Nehrkorn MS). Other authors term the tint blue-green, etc.: of. Hume, Nests and 

 Eggs Ind. B., Gates ed. 1890, m, 249; Taczanowski, Faune Orn. Sib. Orient. 1893, 

 n, 988; North, Nests & Eggs B. Austr. 1889, 322; etc. 



Distribution (with racial differences). S. E. Siberia and Japan, south throughout the East India 

 Islands to Austraha, New Caledonia, Fiji and Tahiti, Ceylon, the Andamans and 

 Nicobars, Chagos, Mauritius, Eodriguez, Seychelles, Comoros (cf. Salvadori and 

 Sharpe). In the Celebes Province: — Minahassa (Meyer 2, Fischer b 4, etc.), 

 Gorontalo District (Forsten b 1, Eiedel 4], Manado tua (Nat. Coll.), small island 

 off Buton (S. Miiller a 1), Tempe, S. Celebes (Weber 5), Macassar (P.& F. Sarasin), 

 Saleyer (Everett 7). 



This little Heron seems to be not uncommon in Celebes, though it has 

 not yet been found in the neighbouring island groups, Sangi, Talaut and Sula. 

 The first record of its occurrence in the Province is due to Salomon Miiller, 

 who found it on a small island near Buton Island. Meyer observed that it 

 "flies alone. Sits much on a twig over or near the water, bent together, but 

 eagerly looking for food, and suddenly rushing down on a fish or a crab. Also 

 feeds on eggs of fresh-water fishes, especially Ophiocephalus striatus (native name 

 'Kobos'). which is common in the lake of Tondano; but often the strong fish 

 attacks the bird, and hinders it from devouring the eggs" (2). 



Rosenberg (b 5) describes it and Ardea macrorhyncha (the present bird in im- 

 mature dress?) as also haunting the strand at ebb-tide, where it finds its food among 

 the roots of the mangroves, eating all kinds of marine animals, especially crabs. 



B. javanica, which has been placed by many authors among the Little 

 Bitterns (Ardetta), by Seebohm (B. Japan 1890, 224) among the Night Herons, 

 (Nycticorax), is the type of the genus Butorides. Dr. Sharpe recognises five or 

 six species, these being spread over most of the temperate and tropical parts of 

 the globe, except of Europe and Western Asia. Its affinities are more with 

 the Night Herons than with the lAttle Bitterns; its black pileum and crest, and 

 reticulate-scaled tarsus display its relationship to the Night Herons; it differs by 

 the feathers of the back and scapulars elongated and lanceolate, much as in 

 Ardea, and in wanting the three long, white nuchal plumes. Its somewhat 

 short and stout legs, toes, and claws appear well adapted for poking about among 

 the rough places of the sea-strand, as is the case with Demiegretta, and herein 

 it differs from the Little Bitterns, Ardetta, which have more delicate toes, longer, 

 thinner and straighter claws, and the tarsus clad with regular transverse scales. 



As is indicated above, two forms of B. javanica occur in Celebes, a resident 

 race and a larger bird, of which a young specimen has been recorded from 

 Gorontalo by Prof. W. Blasius and identified by him with the Australian 

 B. macrorhyncha (Gld.;, but which may more probably be an individual of the 

 large race from S. E. Siberia and Japan, which migi-ates south in winter 

 (Seebohm, B.Japan 1890, 224; Everett, Ibis 1895, 38; Styan, Ibis 1891, 327, 

 493; De La Touche, Ibis 1892, 489; David & Oust., Ois. Chine 1877, 442). 



