AEDETTA SINENSIS. 
(THE EASTERN LITTLE BITTERN.) 
Ardea sinensis , Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 642 (1788) ; Gray & Hardwicke, 111. Ind. Zool. i. pi. 66. 
fig. 2 (1830-34) ; Salvadori, Uccelli di Bom. p. 354 (1874) ; Hume, Nests and Eggs, 
iii. p. 673 (1875). 
Ardea lejrida, Horsf. Trans. Linn. Soc. xiii. p. 90 (1821). 
Ardetta sinensis (Gm.), Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 282 (1849); Layard & Kelaart, 
Prodromus, Cat. App. p. 61 (1853); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1854, xiv. p. 113 ; 
Jerdon, B. of Ind. iii. p. 755 (1864); Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 478; Legge, Ibis, 1875, 
p. 404 ; David & Oustalet, Ois. de la Chine, p. 448 (1877) ; Hume, Str. Feath. 1879, 
p. 114 (List B. of Ind.); Doig, t. c. p. 378. 
Chinese Heron, Lath. ; Yellow Bittern, Jerdon. Jim bogla, Bengal. ; Bambangan, Java 
(Horsf.) ; Mannal Nary, Ceylonese Tamils. 
Metti korowaJca, Sinhalese. 
Adult male and female (Ceylon). Length 14-4 to 14-75 inches ; wing 5-2 to 5-4 ; tail 1-8 to 14) ; middle toe and claw 
1-95 to 2-0 ; bill to gape 2-4 to 2-9, at front 2-0 to 2-2 ; expanse 21-0. Middle claw finely pectinated. 
Male (Furreedpore). Length 17'75 inches; wing 5-53; bill at front 2-16 : weight 3-37 oz. {Cripps).— Female (Anda- 
mans). Length 15-25 inches ; wing 5-3 ; bill from gape 2-75 : weight 6 oz. {Hume).— Five males (China). Wing 
5-1 to 5-3 inches ; tarsus 1-7 to 1-9 ; bill at front 2-05 to 2-2. Three females. Wing 4-7 to 4-9 inches ; bill at 
front 2-0 to 2-1. — Female (Flores). Wing 4-8 inches; bill at front 2-05. 
Ins golden yellow ; orbital and loral skin and gape greenish, with a dark line above to the nostril ; bill, culmen blackish 
brown, the margin of upper mandible and the lower yellowish ; legs yellowish, marked with green on the joints 
and sides of tarsus ; feet greenish dusky above ; claws dark brown. 
(Ceylon). Forehead, head, and crest black, with a green lustre ; neck and throat light fulvous yellow, the chin paler, 
and the sides of the neck, face, and sides of head shading off into reddish cinnamon-colour, deepest at the tips of 
the elongated feathers ; back and scapulars pale glossy brown, with a slight green lustre and a dark wash down 
the centre ; wing-coverts sandy or paler brown than the back ; quills, primary-coverts, winglet, and tail blackish 
slate ; upper tail-coverts bluish ashy ; pectoral plumes black, with broad fulvous-yellow edgings ; breast, belly, 
and under tail-coverts fulvous white, darkening to fulvous at the sides of the breast and on the flanks ; under 
wing-coverts and edge of wing white. 
i oung. Birds of the year have the soft parts as in the adult. 
Centres of the head and crest-feathers black, changing to rufous at the edges ; chin and gorge white; a rufous stripe 
down the centre, this colour spreading over the neck on the lower part, and occupying the centres of the feathers, 
which are dark-shafted ; terminal portion of side-neck feathers the same ; back rich brown, verging into rufous 
on the scapulars and tertials ; centres of the wing-coverts brown, and the whole deeply edged with glossy fulves- 
eent yellow; quills, tail, and pectoral plumes much as in the adult, but the latter with broader edgings, and the 
hue of the primaries and secondaries not so black ; the edge of the 1st quill buff, and the tips of the secondaries 
slightly pale. 
Ohs. Examples from the Andamans and Nicobars are, according to Mr. Flume, more brightly plumaged than Indian 
specimens. A young bird is described (Str. Feath. 1873, p. 308) as having the top of the head, back, scapulars, 
tertials, and lesser wing-coverts “ deep cinnamon-rufous,” the crown-feathers centred darker, and the margins 
of the back-feathers golden buff. This distribution of colour is the same as in our birds ; but the tiuts°are 
evidently brighter both as regards the dark and pale coloration. A series of adults from China which I have 
examined present no important points of difference ; the colour of the back is a little browner in most, but in 
other points they are identical with Ceylonese birds. The well-known Little Bittern of Europe, which is also 
found in North-western India (Sindh), is the western representative of this species, and is larger, differing chiefly, 
