258 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
the colour of tlie fore neck, and the whole lower plumage is a yellower 
fulvous. 
The young have the whole upper plumage yellowish broadly streaked 
with brown, and the lower plumage white streaked with pale cinnamon. 
Iris yellow; eyelids and facial skin green; upper mandible dark brown 
on the culmen and pinkish brown on the margins ; lower mandible pinkish 
brown^ turning to green towards the tip ; the toes and tibio-tarsal joint 
pale yellow ; tarsus dull flesh-colour ; claws horn-colour. 
Length 15 inches, tail 2, wing 5*5, tarsus 1*8, bill from gape 2*6. The 
female is of the same size. 
The Little Yellow. Bittern is spread over the whole of Burmah, and is 
tolerably abundant in suitable localities. 
It is met with over the greater part of India and Ceylon, the Indo-Bur- 
mese countries, China, Cochin China, the Malay peninsula, Java, Borneo, 
Celebes and the Philippine Islands. 
This very small Bittern occurs in paddy-fields and other thick cover 
where the ground is swampy ; it is very shy and seldom observed. I found 
its nest in August on the bank of the Pegu river, a pad of grass placed on 
a tangled mass of elephant-grass, and containing four pale green eggs. 
Genus BOTAURUS, Ste^h. 
623. BOTAURUS STELLARIS. 
THE COMMON EUROPEAN BITTERN. 
Ardea stellaris, Litm. &yst. Nat. i. p. 239 ; Jerd. B. Ind. ii. p. 757 ; Hume, Nests 
and Eggs, p. 624 ; id. S. F. i. p. 256 ; Dresser, Birds Eur. vi. p. 281, pi. ; Butler, 
S. F. iv. p. 24 ; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 446 ; Hume, 8. F. viii. p. 114 ; 
Oates, S. F. x. p. 244. 
Description. — Male and female. General colour of the plumage ochra- 
ceous yellow ; the forehead, crown and a moustachial streak blackish 
brown ; the front of the neck with several longitudinal brown bands ; the 
sides and back of the neck and the feathers above the breast, the whole of 
which are very soft, broad and long, finely barred with black ; the whole 
upper plumage, tertiaries, scapulars, wing-coverts and tail beautifully 
marked with blackish ; quills brown, irregularly banded with rufous ; 
lower plumage boldly streaked with black. 
Iris yellow ; eyelids greenish ; lower mandible and margins of the upper 
pale green ; remainder of the upper mandible and the facial skin smoky 
brown ; legs green with a tinge of yellow ; claws horn-colour. 
