78 AEDEID^ BRYTHROCNUS 



Butorides rufiventris, Oates, Matabeleland, p. 327 (1881). 

 Erythroonus rufiventris, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxvi, p. 200 (1898) ; W. L. 



Sclatei; Ibis, 1899, p. 114 [Inhambane] ; Eeichenow, Vocf. Afr. i, p. 



370 (1901). 



Descrijjtion. Adult Female. — General colour above black, darkest 

 on the head and neck, becoming more slaty on the scapulars and 

 back ; lower back, rump, tail, and wiog-coverts rich maroon-red ; 

 primaries and their coverts slaty like the back, most of the 

 secondaries maroon like the coverts, bend of the wing slightly 

 mottled with grey ; throat, neck and upper breast black, shaded 

 with bluish slate, especially on the breast ; a rather indefinite 

 narrow mesial line of rufous runs down the centre; abdomen, 

 under tail-coverts, axillaries and under wing-coverts rich maroon. 

 Iris rich yellow, shading on the outer ring into orange, skin round 

 the eyes and the basal half of the bill bright yellow, tip of the bill 

 dark brown, legs and feet yellow, toes horn. 



Length about 15; wing 8-25; tail 2-5; culmen 2-2o; tarsus 

 2-10 ; middle toe 2-5. A young bird is duller and browner than the 

 adult, and the rufous colour much paler, throat yellowish buff, as 

 well as the centre of the fore neck. 



The only example in the South African Museum, an apparently 

 adult female, has the mesial throat streak very clearly marked ; 

 this is not mentioned in Dr. Sharpe's description of a male in 

 the Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum ; it therefore seems 

 to be probable that the throat streak is absent in the adult male, 

 and that the sexes differ in this respect. 



Distribution. — The Eufous-bellied Heron is confined to Africa 

 south of the Cunene and Zambesi Elvers, extending beyond our 

 limits only in Southern Angola and to Quillimane. 



The species was first obtained by Wahlberg, in both "Lower 

 and Upper Caffraria " ; and it is in the southern and eastern portion 

 of our area along the rivers that it has chiefly been met with ; only 

 the one occurrence within the boundaries of Cape Colony here 

 noted is authenticated. 



The following are localities : Cape Colony — Kmg Williams 

 Town (Bt. Mus) ; Natal— Durban (Bt. Mus.), St. Lucia Bay in 

 Zululand (Layard) ; Transvaal — Potchefstroom, December, and 

 junction of Matlabas and Limpopo Elvers (Ayres), Pienaars Eiver 

 bridge in Pretoria district (Penther) ; Bechuanaland — Lake Ngami 

 (Andersson) ; Ehodesia — Hendriks Vlei, December (Oates), Panda- 

 matenka (Holub) ; German South-west Africa — Okavango Eiver ; 



