ARDETTA SINENSIS. 



(THE EASTERN LITTLE BITTERN.) 



Ardea sinensis, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 642 (1788) ; Gray & Hardwicke, 111. Ind. Zool. i. pi. 60. 



fig. 2 (1830-34) ; Salvadori, Uccelli di Bom. p. 354 (.1874) ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, 



iii. p. 673 (1875). 

 Ardea lepida, Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 90 (1821). 

 Ardetta sinensis (Grn.), Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 282(1849); Layard & Kelaart, 



Prodromus, Cat. App. p. 61 (1853); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 113 ; 



Jerclon, B. of Ind. iii. p. 755 (1864) ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 478 ; Legge, Ibis, 1875, 



p. 404; David & Oustalet, Ois. de la Chine, p. 448 (1877) ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1879, 



p. 114 (List B. of Ind.); Doig, t. c. p. 378. 

 Chinese Heron, Lath. ; Yelloio Bittern, Jerdon. Jun bogla, Bengal. ; Bambaurjan, Java 



(Horsf.) ; Manned Nary, Ceylonese Tamils. 

 Metti korowaka, Sinhalese. 



A. hilt male and female (Ceylon). Length 14 - 4 to 14 - 75 inches ; wing 5 - 2 to 5-4 ; tail l - 8 to 1*9 ; middle toe and claw 

 1-95 to 2-0 ; bill to gape 2-4 to 2-9, at front 2-0 to 2-2; expanse 21-0. Middle claw finely pectinated. 



Male ( Furreedpore). Length 17'75 inches; wing 5-53; bill at front 2-16 : weight 3 - 37 oz. {Cripps). — Female (Anda- 

 mans). Length 15-25 inches; wing 5 - 3; bill from gape 2-75: weight 6 oz. {Hume). — Five males (China). Wing 

 5 - l to 5 - 3 inches ; tarsus 1-7 to 1/9 ; bill at front 2-05 to 2-2. Three females. Wing 4'7 to 4-9 inches; bill at 

 front 2-0 to 2-1.— Female (Flores). Wing 4-8 inches ; bill at front 2-05. 



[ris golden yellow ; orbital and loral skin and gape greenish, with a dark line above to the nostril ; bill, culmen blackish 

 brown, the margin of upper mandible and the lower yellowish ; legs yellowish, marked with green on the joints 

 and sides of tarsus ; feet greenish dusky above ; claws dark brown. 



i< <v Ion). Forehead, head, and crest black, with a green lustre; neck and throat light fulvous yellow, the chin paler, 

 and the sides of the neck, face, and sides of head shading off into reddish cinnamon-colour, deepest at the tips of 

 the elongated feathers; back and scapulars pale glossy brown, with a slight green lustre and a dark wash down 

 the centre ; wing-coverts sandy or paler brown than the back ; quills, primary-coverts, winglet, and tail blackish 

 slate ; upper tail-coverts bluish ashy ; pectoral plumes black, with broad fulvous-yellow edgings ; breast, belly, 

 and under tail-coverts fulvous white, darkening to fulvous at the sides of the breast and on the flanks; under 

 wing-coverts and edge of wing white. 



Young, Birds of the year have the soft parts as in the adult. 



( .•ntivs of the head and crest-feathers black, changing to rufous at the edges ; chin and gorge white ; a rufous stripe 

 down the centre, this colour spreading over the neck on the lower part, and occupying the centres of the feathers, 

 which are dark-shafted ; terminal portion of side-neck feathers the same ; back rich brown, vergiug into rufous 

 on the scapulars and tertials ; centres of the wing-coverts brown, and the whole deeply edged with glossy f ulves- 

 cent yellow ; quills, tail, and pectoral plumes much as iu the adult, but the latter with broader edgings, and the 

 hue of the primaries and secondaries not so black ; the edge of the 1st quill buff, and the tips of the secondaries 

 slightly pale. 



Obs. Examples from the Andamans and Nicobars are, according to Mr. Hume, more brightly plumaged than Indian 

 specimens. A young bird is described (Str. Feath. 1873, p. 308) as having the top of the head, back, scapulars, 

 tertials, and lesser wing-coverts " deep cinnamon-rufous," the crown-feathers centred darker, and the margins 

 of the back-feathers golden buff. This distribution of colour is the same as in our birds ; but the tints are 

 evidently brighter both as regards the dark and pale coloration. A series of adults from China which I have 

 examined present no important points of difference ; the colour of the back is a little browner in most, but in 

 other points they are identical with Ceylonese birds. The well-known Little Bittern of Europe, which is also 

 found in North-western India (Sindh), is the western representative of this species, and is larger, differing chiefly, 



