Order ARDEIF0RME8 
No. 250. 
Family ARDEIDM. 
BOTAURUS POICILOPTILUS POICILOPTILUS. 
EAST AUSTRALIAN BITTERN. 
Aedea poiciloptila Wagler, Syst. Av., Ardea, p. 185, sp. 28 (note), 1827 ; New 
South Wales. 
Ardea poiciloptila Wagler, Syst. Av., Ardea, p. 185, sp. 28 (note), 1827. 
Ardea perciloptera Gray, in Griffith’s ed. Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., Vol. VIII., p. 343, 1829 
(error for poiciloptilus Wagler). 
Botaurus poiciloptilus id., Genera Birds, Vol. III., p. 557, 1847 ; Gould, Handb. Birds 
Austr., Vol. II., p. 313, 1865. 
Botaurus australis id.. Birds Austr., Vol. VI., pi. 64, 1848 ; Sturt, Narr. Exp. Centr. 
Austr., Vol. II., App., p. 52, 1849 ; Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S.W., Vol. VII., 
p. 55, 1882. 
Botaurus poeciloptila Bonaparte, Comptes Rendus Sci. (Paris), Vol. XL., p. 723, 1855. 
Botaurus poeciloptilus id., Consp. Gen. Av., Vol. II., p. 135, 1855 ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds 
Brit. Mus., Vol. XXVI., p. 258, 1898 ; Campbell, Nests and Eggs Austr. Birds, 
p. 967, 1901 ; Sharpe, Hist. Coll. Brit. Mus., p. 146, 1906 ; Hall, Key Birds 
Austr., p. 100, 1906 ; Mathews, Handl. Birds Austral., p. 33, 1908 ; Littler, 
Handb. Birds Tasm., p. 195, 1910 ; North, Austr. Mus. Sp. Cat., no. 1, Vol. IV., 
p. 45, 1913. 
Botaurus poicilopterus Ramsay, Tab. List Austr. Birds, p. 21, 1888 ; North, Austr. 
Mus. Cat., no. 12, p. 320, 1890 ; Fletcher, Emu, Vol. IX., p. 79, 1909. 
Botaurus poiciloptilus poiciloptilus Mathews, Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 235, 1912 ; id.. 
List Birds Austr., p. 86, 1913. 
Distribution. Queensland ; New South Wales ; Victoria ; Tasmania ; South Australia. 
Adult tnale. Head uniform dusky-brown glossed with purple and with shghtly paler 
tips to some of the feathers ; sides of neck and sides of throat similar but a little 
paler ; ear-coverts and a hne over the eye buffy-white ; middle of back and 
scapulars dark brown vermiculated and mottled with buff or buffy-white and a 
certain amount of purple reflection ; wing-coverts mottled with brown, rufous, 
and buff — ^more uniform brown on the bend of the wing, bastard-wing, and 
primary-coverts ; primary- and secondary-quills pale earth-brown, irregularly 
barred and mottled with sandy-rufous ; tail-feathers dark brown with sandy- 
rufous motthngs on the outer webs ; lower-back, rump, and upper tad-coverts 
mottled with sandy-buff ; throat and under-parts sandy-buff irregularly marked 
and mottled with pale brown, more inchning to rufous on the under wing-coverts ; 
axillaries buff, barred with pale brown. Irides bright yellow ; feet light greenish ; 
