Birds of Colebes; Ardeidae. 
853 
Nest and Eggs. In Celebes the bird builds its nest near the water in the reeds (Meyer 2). 
“Eggs from the Amur and E. India are dark bbie and measure 39 X 28 — 29 mm” 
(Nehrkorn MS). Other authors term the tint blue-green, etc.: cf. Hume, Nests and 
Eggs Ind. B., Oates ed. 1890, HI, 249; Taczanowski, Faune Orn. Sib. Orient. 1893, 
U, 988; North, Nests & Eggs B. Austr. 1889, 322; etc. 
Distribution (with racial differences). S. E. Siberia and Japan, south thi'oughout the East India 
Islands to Australia, New Caledonia, Fiji and Tahiti, Ceylon, the Andamans and 
Nicobars, Chagos, Mauritius, Rodriguez, Seychelles, Comoros (cf. Salvador! and 
Sharpe). In the Celebes Province: — Minahassa (Meyer 2, Fischer b 4, etc.), 
Gorontalo District (Forsten b 1, Riedel 4), Manado tua (Nat. Coll.), small island 
off Buton (S. Muller a 1), Tempe, S. Celebes (Weber 6), Macassar (P.& F. Sarasin), 
Saleyer (Everett 7). 
This little Heron seems to be not uncommon in Celebes, though it has 
not yet been found in the neighbouring island groups, Sangi, Talaut and Sula. 
The first record of its occurrence in the Province is due to Salomon Muller, 
who found it on a small island near Buton Island. Meyer observed that it 
“flies alone. Sits much on a twig over or near the water, bent together, but 
eagerly looking for food, and suddenly rushing down on a fish or a crab. Also 
feeds on eggs of fresh-water fishes, especially Ophiocephalus striatus (native name 
‘Kobos’), which is common in the lake of Tondano; but often the strong fish 
attacks the bird, and hinders it from devouring the eggs” (2). 
Rosenberg (h 5) describes it and Ardea man-orhpncha (the present bird in im- 
mature dress?) as also haunting the strand at ebb-tide, where it finds its food among 
the roots of the mangroves, eating all kinds of marine animals, especially crabs. 
B. javanica, which has been placed by many authors among the Little 
Bitterns (Ardetta), by Seebohm (B. Japan 1890, 224) among the Night Herong, 
(NycUcorax), is the type of the genus Butorides. Dr. Sharpe recognises five or 
six species, these being spread over most of the temperate and tropical parts of 
the globe, except of Europe and Western Asia. Its affinities are more with 
the Night Herons than Avith the Little Bitterns; its black pileum and crest, and 
reticulate-scaled tarsus display its relationship to the Night Herons; it differs by 
the feathers of the back and scapulars elongated and lanceolate, much as in 
Ardea, and in wanting the three long, AA'hite nuchal plumes. Its somewhat 
short and stout legs, toes, and claws appear well adapted for poking about among 
the rough places of the sea-strand, as is the case with Demiegretta, and herein 
it differs from the Little Bitterns, Ardetta, which have more delicate toes, longer, 
thinner and straighter claws, and the tarsus clad with regular transverse scales. 
As is indicated above, two forms of B. javanica occur in Celebes, a resident 
race and a larger bird, of which a young specimen has been recorded from 
Gorontalo by Prof. W. Blasius and identified by him with the Australian 
B. niacrorhyncha (Gld.), but which may more probably be an individual of the 
large race from S. E. Siberia and Japan, which migrates south in winter 
(Seebohm, B. Japan 1890, 224; Everett, Ibis 1895, 38; Styan, Ibis 1891, 327, 
493; De La Touche, Ibis 1892, 489; David & Oust, Ois. Chine 1877, 442). 
