254 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
two species^ the present or the preceding^ it refers. It may even represent 
the winter plumage of A. speciosa, for not much importance can be 
attached to the locality " Malacca/^ On the whole^ I think it better to 
adhere to Mr. Swinhoe''s clearly defined name and to reject Boddaert^s. 
Genus BIJTORIDES, £1. 
619. BUTORIDES JAVANICA. 
THE LITTLE GREEN BITTERN. 
Ardea javanica, Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 190. Butorides javanica, 
Jerd. B. Incl. ii. p. 752 ; W aid. Trans. Zool. Soe. viii. p. 100 ; Hume, Nests and 
Eggs, p. 620 ; Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 351 ; Hume., S. F. ii. p. 310, iii. p. 191 ; 
Bl. B. Burm. p. 160; Hume 8f Bar. S. F. vi. p. 483; David et Oust. Ois. 
Chine, p. 442 ; Legge, Birds Ceylon^ p. 1153 ; Anders. Yunnan Fxped. p. 689 ; 
Cripps, S. F. vii. p. 308 ; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 114 ; Bingham, iS. F. ix. p. 197 ; 
Oates, S. F. x. p. 243 ; Kelham, Ibis, 1882, p. 195. 
Description. — Male and female. Forehead,, crown^ nape and long 
occipital crest glossy greenish black ; the upper part of the ear-coverts and 
a line from the eye below the ear-coverts black ; the remainder of the ear- 
coverts^ the cheeks^ chin and throat greyish or yellowish white ; remainder 
of the head^ the whole neck and the whole under plumage dark ashy, the 
centre of the fore neck and breast fulvous-white ; back and scapulars 
purplish green^ the feathers lengthened and pointed ; rump brown, slightly 
riif escent ; upper tail-coverts greenish brown ; tail dark ashy brown ; 
wing-coverts dark glossy green, narrowly margined with whitish; quills 
slaty brown, more or less tinged with green on the outer webs and 
becoming entirely green on the tertiaries ; the secondaries narrowly tipped 
with whitish. 
Iris yellow ; facial skin green ; upper mandible black, with a longitu- 
dinal yellow streak on the margins below the nostrils ; gape greenish 
brown ; lower mandible greenish yellow, more or less black along the 
edges ; legs and toes green, the front of the tarsus and toes dusky ; soles 
orange ; claws horn-colour. 
Length 18 inches, tail 2*6, wing 7'8, tarsus 2, bill from gape 3*1. The 
female is of the same size. 
The Little Green Bittern is found over the whole of Burmah on the 
banks of rivers and swamps where there is brushwood. 
It occurs over the greater part of India, Ceylon and the Andaman 
Islands, in the Indo-Burmese countries, China, Cochin China, the Malay 
peninsula and islands as far as Australia, and ranging to some of the 
