260 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
Iris bright crimson ; eyelids and facial skin dull livid ; bill black ; legs 
and toes pale rufous ; claws black. In the nonbreeding-season the base 
of the bill appears to be greenish^ and in some birds the legs are described 
as being yellowish. 
Length 23 inches^ tail 3*6^ wing 11-5^ tarsus 3^ bill from gape 4. The 
sexes appear to be of the same size. 
The Night-Heron is extremely abundant over the whole of the plains of 
British Burmah. 
It is found over the greater part of Europe,, Africa^ North America and 
Asia^ extending in the latter continent down to the Malay islands. 
This species is met with in immense flocks^ resting during the day in 
trees and bamboos near streams^ and very frequently in the fine tall hedges 
surrounding Burmese monasteries. Towards dusk they fly to their feeding- 
grounds^ uttering those loud quacking notes which mast be familiar to 
every one residing in the country. In India^ and probably in Burmah 
also at times^ they construct their nests in trees ; but at Myitkyo I found 
them breeding in reed-swamps^ with Cormorants and other water-birds, in 
July and August. The eggs are pale green in colour. 
Genus GORSACHIUS, Pucker. 
625. GORSACHIUS MELANOLOPHUS. 
THE MALAYAN TIGER BITTERN. 
Ardea melanolopha, Raffl. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 326. Nycticorax limno- 
philax, Temm. PL Col. 581. Nycticorax goisagi, Temm. PI. Col. 582. 
Ardea goisagi, Temm. et ScJdeg. Fcmn. Jap., Aves, p. 116, pi. 70. Botaurus 
limnophilax, Salvad. Ucc. Born. p. 355. Goisakius melanolophus, Hume, 
S. F. ii. p. 312 ; Bourclillon, S. F. vii. p. 524 ; Hume, S. F. yiii. p. 114 ; Kelham, 
Ibis, 1882, p. 196. Gorsachius melanolophus, Salvad. Ucc. Porn. p. 355; 
PL P. Purm. p. 160 ; JVald. Trans. Zool. Soc. ix. p. 238 ; David et Oust. Ois. 
Chine, p. 444; Legge, Pirds Ceylon, p. 1169 ; Hume 8f Bav. S. F. vi. p. 484. 
Description. — Adult male. Forehead_, crown and a long occipital crest 
purplish black ; sides of the head and the whole of the back of the neck 
chestnut ; back^ rump_, wing-coverts_, scapulars and tertiaries dull chestnut, 
closely barred with narrow wavy black lines ; winglet black, broadly tipped 
with white ; the first two or three primary-coverts black tipped with white, 
the others chestnut tipped with white ; primaries slaty black tipped with 
white and with a subterminal patch of chestnut, the white decreasing and 
the chestnut increasing from the first primary to the others ; secondaries 
broadly rufous near the tips and narrowly tipped with white ; upper tail- 
