THE MALAYAN TIGER BITTERN. 
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coverts and tail slaty brown ; chin and throat whitish ; front and sides of 
the neck and the breast dull rufous-grey, the centre of the throat and the 
middle line of the neck and breast streaked with blacky light buff and 
chestnut ; remainder of the lower plumage dull chestnut, marked in various 
ways with black lines and bars and with white patches ; under tail-coverts 
nearly pure white. 
Another bird, probably an adult female, is in the same plumage as the 
male above described, except that the whole head is chestnut and there is 
no crest of lengthened and pointed feathers. 
Another bird with a long pointed crest has the forehead, crown, and 
crest black, each feather with one and sometimes two triangular white 
patches ; the whole upper plumage dark brown stippled and mottled with 
white, the feathers of the back with rather large white spots, one on each 
feather ; sides of the head, sides of the occiput and sides of the neck dark 
brown boldly marked with white ; quills and tail much the same as in 
the adult male above described ; lower plumage an indescribable mixture 
of rufescent white, pale chestnut and dark brown. 
The plumage of this bird is not well understood, and I have described 
above three beautiful specimens in the British Museum which I take to be 
respectively, in the order they are described, the adult male, the adult 
female and the young. Mr. Hume (/. c.) has elucidated the question in 
some measure ; but he procured too few specimens in the Nicobar Islands 
to enable him to describe fully the various stages of plumage. 
Fetnale. Legs and feet dull green ; claws horny ; irides greenish yellow ; 
the upper mandible horny brown edged with dull green ; the lower man- 
dible greenish horny. [Hume.) 
Male. Bare skin in front of the eye and about the base of the bill 
green ; legs and feet greenish olive ; claws pale plumbeous. {Bourdillon.) 
Length 19 inches, tail 3'5, wing 10-3, tarsus 2*5, bill from gape 2*3. 
The female appears to be smaller. 
The Malayan Tiger Bittern is stated by Mr. Blyth to have occurred in 
the island of Ramree off the coast of Arrakan. Mr. Davison observed it 
in the extreme south of Tenasserim, but did not secure a specimen. 
It has been met with in Ceylon, in Southern India and in the Nicobar 
Islands, at Malacca and in Sumatra, and it occurs from Japan down the 
coast of China and Cochin China to the Philippine Islands, and thence to 
the Pelew Islands in the Pacific Ocean. 
This Tiger Bittern appears to frequent forest-streams and to be noc- 
turnal in its habits. Little, however, is known about it. 
