ARDETTA? FLAVICOLLIS. 
Yellow-necked Bittern. 
Ardea Jlavicollis, Lath. Ind. Orn., vol. ii. p. 701. — Wagl. Syst. Nat., Ardea, sp. 16. 
Ardea nigra, Vieill. 2ndEdit. duNouv.Dict. d’Hist. Nat., tom. xiv. p. 417. — Ib. Ency. Meth. Orn., Part iii. p. 1118. 
Yellow-necked Heron, Lath. Gen. Syn. Supp., p. 239. — Ib. Gen. Hist., vol. ix. p. 134. 
Ardetta Jlavicollis, List of Birds in Brit. Mus. Coll., Part iii. p. 84.- 
Wor-gorl, Aborigines of Port Essington. 
Little Brown Bittern of the Colonists. 
I HAVE received this beautiful species from New South Wales, Swan River and Port Essington ; it was also 
obtained by Governor Grey on the north-west coast. Both Latham and Wagler assert that it inhabits Java 
and that it extends its range to the continent of India, and although I do not question the truth of this 
assertion, I must state that the specimens I have seen from those countries are smaller in all their admea- 
surements than those from Australia ; much difference however occurs in the size and colouring of the 
sexes, and it may be that the few individuals which have come under my notice from India and Java were 
females. 
The Yellow-necked Bittern is exclusively an inhabitant of the mangroves, from which it is not easily 
driven, but it readily eludes pursuit by the facility with which it runs over the mud beneath the roots of the 
mangroves, which it will do for a long time and distance, and it must be very closely followed up before it 
can be forced to take wing. 
Eggs were taken on the 6th of January, in a nest formed of small sticks resting on a slender hori- 
zontal branch of a mangrove ; they were two in number, very much paler bluish green and more rounded 
iu form than those of any other species of the group, being one inch and a half long by one inch and an 
eighth broad. 
The male has the crown of the head, back of the neck and all the upper surface bronzy black ; primaries 
and tail bluish slate-colour ; chin whitish ; throat deep buff, the feathers down the centre of the chin and 
throat having their inner webs pale buff and their tips blackish brown, giving the whole a richly variegated 
appearance; elongated feathers of the breast pale brown, narrowly margined with buff; under surface 
greyish brown, stained with buff; irides yellow ; bill dark horn-colour ; feet olive-brown. 
The female differs in having the colours of the throat less brilliant and contrasted, and the upper surface 
of a lighter brown than that of the male. 
The Plate represents the two sexes rather less than the natural size. 
