Birds of Celebes: Ardeidae. 863 



Distribution. In the Celebesian area: Talaut Is. — Kabruang and Salibabu (Nat. Coll.); 

 Sangi Is. — Siao (Meyer c 2); Celebes — N. Peninsula (Eosenberg a 2, Faber 

 b 1, Meyer, v. Mns schenbroek , Riedel c 3); S. Peninsula (Platen e 3, 

 Weber c 5). 



Dr. Sharp e (d 1) gives the following range for X. flavicoUis — India and 

 Central and Southern China to Ceylon, the Malayan countries, Java, Borneo and 

 Celebes — distinguisliing the birds of the Moluccas, Papuasia, and Austraha respec- 

 tively as three species. Count Salvadori includes the latter localities in the range 

 of the single species, ArdeiraUa flavicoUis, describing a second species, A. melaena, 

 as occurring with it in Great Sangi and Halmahera. 



The Yellow-necked Bittern is a puzzling species to the systematist, as it 

 varies much individually as regards measurements (see above) and apparently 

 also in coloration, moreover racial differences seem to exist. If this is the case 

 — and we can hardly doubt it — it is pretty certain that such differences will 

 occur in almost every locality where the bird is resident. The difficulty is in- 

 creased by tbe circumstance that the bird is only a summer visitor to China; 

 in winter it proceeds to other quarters, and one is not sure whether this or 

 that specimen in hand from the Celebesian Province was a resident individual 

 there, or a winter visitor from China. Dr. Platen got a young specimen from 

 South Celebes in July (c 3), so that the species must be regarded as a breeding 

 bird in Celebes. 



This is a handsome species, its general coloration recalling in many ways 

 that of the Purple Heron. It has often been placed in the genus Ardetta, but 

 its affinities with the Little Bitterns look as if they were distant, though it is 

 not easy to find points of structural difference in skins. The long and broad 

 loose feathers of the jugulum, and the absence of the tufts of feathers with 

 broad black or blackish centres on the sides of the breast below the shoulder, 

 are perhaps the most striking differences between it and Ardetta. 



7^ 366. XANTHOCNUS MELAENUS (Salvad.). 



Black Bittern. 



a. Ardetta melaena (1) Salvad., Atti Ace. Torino 1877—78, XTTT, 1186. 

 h. ArdeiraUa melaena (1) Salvad., Oni. Pap. 1882, m, 367; (2) Meyer, Isis, Dresden 

 1884, 6, 57; (3) "W. Bias., Ornis 1888, 631; (4) Salvad., Agg. Orn. Pap. 1891, 207. 



c. Ardeirallus melas (1) Sharp e, Ibis 1894, 427. 



d. Xanthocnus melas (1) Sharpe, Ibis 1894, 431. 



e. Dupetor melas (1) Sharpe, Ibis 1896, 256; (2) id.. Cat. B. 1898, XXVI, 251. 



Adult. Black, slightly slaty; abdomen dusky blackish; bill and feet entirely black. Wing 



220 mm; tail 80; tarsus 70; bill 84 (Salvadori a 1). 

 Immature? Dusky brown, paler below, iuchning to russet down middle of throat; bill black, 



under mandible paler; legs and feet dark brown. Wing 212 mm; tail 78; tarsus 



62.5; middle toe with claw 67; exposed culmeu 79 (Sangi — C 10511). 

 Young. Feathers of fore-neck shghtly margined with brown; feathers of back and abdomen 



Hghtly washed -with white (Salvadori a 1). 



