GOKSACHIUS MELANOLOPHUS. 



(THE MALAY BITTERN.) 



Ardea melanolopha, Eaffles, Tr. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 326 (1821, Sumatra). 



Tigrisoma melanolopha (Kaffl.), Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 281 (1849) ; Layard, Ann. & 



Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 114. 

 Ardea goisagi, Temm. et Schl. Faun. Japon. Aves, p. 116, pi. 70 (1850), ex Temin. PL Col. 



582. 

 Gorsachius melanolophus (Kaffl.), Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 478 ; Salvadori, Uccelli di Born. 



p. 355 (1874); Walden, Tr. Zool. Soc. 1875, ix. p. 238; David & Oustalet, Ois. de 



la Chine, p. 444 (1877). 

 Goisakius melanolophus (Kaffl.), Plume, Str. Feath. 1874, p. 312, et 1879, p. 71 et p. 114 



(List B. of Ind.) ; Bourdillon, ibid. 1875, p. 524. 

 The Malay Tiger-Bittern of some. 

 Em koka, Sinhalese. 



Adult male (Ceylon). Length 19-5 to 19-7 inches ; wing 10"5 to 10-7 ; tail 3-75 to 4-0 ; tarsus 2-6 to 2-8 ; bare tibia 

 075 ; middle toe 2-0, claw (straight) OS ; bill to gape 2-5 to 2-7, at front l - 8 ; pectination of middle claw even, 

 expanding and reaching to the tip of the claw. — Male (Travancore). Length 19 - 62 ; wing 1037 ; tail 3-62 ; tarsus 

 2-69 ; middle toe (with claw) 2-0 ; hind' toe 1/06 (Bourdillon). — Female (Mcobars). Length 17'0 ; wing 9-12 : tail 

 3-0 ; tarsus 2-3 ; bill from gape 2-4 : weight - 75 lb. (? L75) (Hume). 



Iris golden yellow, " frosted " or stippled with olive at the exterior ; gape, orbital and loral skin greenish and slaty : 

 culrnen black ; sides of upper mandible and the lower fleshy ; legs and feet greenish, washed with brown on the 

 front of the tarsus and toes. 



Top of head, nape, and long occipital crest blackish slate, pervaded with an ashy hue ; face, over the eye, hind neck 

 and its sides cinnamon-rufous, pervaded near the edges with ashy, and more particularly on the cheeks ; inter- 

 scapular region, scapulars, wing-coverts, and tertials duller rufous than the hind neck ; the feathers mottled with 

 obscure slaty, this being almost absent on the interscapulary part, which is pervaded with bluish ashy ; lower 

 back and tail ashy brown ; primaries, winglet, and secondaries blackish slate ; terminal portion of primaries and 

 secondaries dull rufous ; primary-coverts brighter rufous, tips of three first primaries and two outer winglet- 

 feathers white ; chin and gorge white, blending into the ashy fulvous of the fore neck ; the plumes of the 

 throat and middle of the lower neck for the most part white on one web and more or less black on the other, 

 marked with rufous and buff, on the first-named part these are mostly concealed ; feathers of the chest mostly 

 white down the centre, surrounded by rufous or fulvous which is clouded with black ; on the breast the white 

 spreads over one web, leaving the other rufous, crossed and marked with white ; towards the abdomen the white 

 predominates, the rufous gradually disappearing, the edges paling to buff and marked with blackish brown ; 

 flanks crossed with black and white dashes, the edges of the feathers being fulvous, mottled with black ; major, 

 secondary, and tertial under wing-coverts handsomely crossed black and white, and washed on one web with 

 rufous ; lesser coverts blackish brown, barred and spotted with white, those beneath the ulna and the metacarpus 

 being washed with rufescent. The " powder-down tracts " are small and grey in this bird. 



Female (JSTicobars). " Iris greenish yellow ; upper mandible horny brown, edged with dull green ; lower mandible 

 greenish horny ; legs and feet dull green, claws horny. Differs from the male in having no line of dark spots 

 down the centre of the chin and throat, in having no feathers of the crest as dark as in the male, and in having 

 several of them, and amongst others the longest, a sort of purplish, red instead of black; the whole mantle is 

 somewhat paler, and the quills are markedly slaty ; the barrings of the wing-lining, sides, &c. are much less 

 conspicuous and less tinged with ferruginous ; the ground-colour of the breast is more of a fawn-colour tinged 

 with ferruginous, and there is much more white about the abdomen, and this is less rufescent than in the male." 

 (Hume, comparison of Nicobar female with a male.) 



Concerning a specimen in the Colombo Museum, I find I have noted that the chin and throat are pure white, con- 



