Part 66

Nycticorax manillensis Vigors, Proc. Zool. Soc. (1831), 98; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 162; Hand-List (1899), 1, 198; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 34. Nycticorax manilensis Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 125.

Cuak-cuak, Bohol.

Bantayan (McGregor); Basilan (Everett); Bohol (McGregor); Caluya (Porter); Camiguin N. (McGregor); Catanduanes (Whitehead); Cebu (Everett, Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Leyte (Everett); Luzon (Lindsay, Cuming, Whitehead); Marinduque (Steere Exp.); Masbate (Bourns & Worcester); Mindanao (Platen, Steere Exp.); Mindoro (McGregor); Negros (Everett, Bourns & Worcester, Keay); Panay (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester); Samar (Bourns & Worcester); Sibuyan (Bourns & Worcester); Siquijor (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester, Celestino); Tablas (Bourns & Worcester); Ticao (McGregor). Western Celebes and northern Borneo.

Adult (sexes similar).--Above deep maroon; crown and crest greenish black; long nuchal plumes whitish except at base and tip; a narrow eyebrow stripe light chestnut mixed with whitish; below white, throat more or less pervaded with chestnut; sides of face neck and breast chestnut; under wing-coverts, axillars, and thighs light chestnut mixed with white. Bill black; skin around eye dark green; legs yellow, nails black. "Bill black; feet pale ocherous-white, brown in front and upper part of toes; orbital skin yellowish green; iris golden yellow." (Everett.)

Male.--Length, 635; culmen, 70; wing, 317; tail, 117; tarsus, 79.

Adult female.--Similar to the male in color. Length, 559; culmen, 76; wing, 381; tail, 123; tarsus, 81.

"Young.--Wings conspicuously chestnut; spots and streaks on upper surface deep rufous or light chestnut; breast very broadly streaked with black. 'Bill brown, lower mandible dirty yellowish; legs light greenish yellow, claws gray; iris golden yellow.' (Everett)." (Sharpe.)

"Quite common, but very local in its habits. Feeds at night. Roosts during the day in lofty trees, frequently choosing trees which stand out in the open." (Bourns and Worcester MS.)

Oates records two eggs of the Manila night heron which were collected by the Steere Expedition in Siquijor, February 15, and two eggs taken by Moseley in May. The measurements are respectively: 56.3 by 36.8; 49.7 by 36.3; 60.9 by 37.5; 50.8 by 33.7.

Genus GORSACHIUS Bonaparte, 1855.

This genus resembles Nycticorax in having a short stout bill, deep nasal groove, and stout legs and toes; it differs in having the elongated crest feathers shorter and wider and in the coloration of the plumage. The tarsus is covered with hexagonal scales but those in front are very wide and appear as transverse plates.

Species.

a1. Head black; axillars barred with black and white; primaries with whitish tips. ... melanolophus (p. 172) a2. Head chestnut; axillars rufous, barred with black; primaries rufous at tip, the white tips obsolete ... goisagi (p. 174)

143. GORSACHIUS MELANOLOPHUS (Raffles).

MALAY BITTERN.

Ardea melanolopha Raffles, Trans. Linn. Soc. (1822), 13, pt. 2, 326. Gorsachius melanolophus Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 166; Hand-List (1899), 1, 199; Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1898), 4, 398, fig. 97; Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 125; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 34.

Balabac (Everett); Basilan (Mearns); Cebu (Bourns & Worcester); Guimaras (Steere Exp.); Luzon (Heriot); Masbate (Bourns & Worcester); Mindanao (Steere, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester); Palawan (Platen, Whitehead, White); Samar (Whitehead); Siquijor (Bourns & Worcester); Ticao (McGregor). Ceylon, southern India, Assam to Hainan, Greater Sunda Islands, Formosa south to Malay Peninsula.

"Adult male.--Above uniform cinnamon-rufous, wing-coverts and mantle with a slight ashy shade and with a certain amount of indistinct freckling; alula-feathers black or slightly mottled with rufous and having broad white tips; outer primary-coverts black, broadly tipped with white and rufous at the base; remainder of primary-coverts cinnamon-rufous slightly tipped with white; quills black, externally shaded with gray, broadly tipped with cinnamon-rufous, narrowly fringed with white at the ends; outer primaries with a large white terminal spot; inner secondaries like back; upper tail-coverts and tail dark slate-color, with a slight rufescent tinge at the ends of inner web; crown and long nuchal crest-feathers slaty gray or black; a narrow line of feathers over eye vinous-cinnamon, broadening out above ear-coverts and occupying the sides of crown, sides of neck, and sides of face; chin and center of throat pale isabelline brown, streaked with black down the center of throat, the black markings on the feathers being lateral and somewhat irregular in shape, the inner webs paler and cream-colored, imparting a rather broadly streaked appearance to the fore neck; center of breast and abdomen white or creamy buff, the feathers notched and barred with dusky, more distinct on the sides; abdomen fulvescent and under tail-coverts white, both of them scarcely spotted at all; under wing-coverts white, regularly spotted and barred with dusky; axillars regularly banded with black and white; quills ashy gray below, with the same rufous and white tips as on the upper surface. Culmen black, sides of the upper mandible and the lower one fleshy; legs and feet greenish, washed with brown on the front of the tarsus and toes. 'Iris golden yellow, frosted or stippled with olive at the exterior; gape, orbital and loral skin greenish and slaty.' (W. V. Legge.) Length, 508; culmen, 51; wing, 269; tail, 102; tarsus, 68.

"Adult female.--Similar to the male.

"The sequence of plumages in these night herons is not very easy to follow, but the nestling from Mindanao clearly proves that the first plumage is spotted with white and that the quills have broad white tips. Both G. melanolophus and G. goisagi occur on Mindanao, but the latter is doubtless only a winter visitor, while the former bird is resident. The same thing occurs in the Island of Formosa, as has been duly pointed out by Mr. Seebohm, in his 'Birds of the Japanese Empire,' where the difference between the two species has been correctly given.

"In the Hume collection there are several rufous-colored birds, which have not yet entirely divested themselves of the wavy immature plumage, while a female from Dibrughur is beginning to put on rufous plumage, though it is still for the most part in the mottled dress of the young. The birds from the Nicobars are decidedly smaller and darker than birds from the mainland, and the wing does not exceed 240 mm.

"Young.--Entirely different from the adult, being brown above, thickly mottled and freckled with dusky blackish, and with longitudinal ochraceous shaft-streaks to the feathers of upper surface; wings like the back; primary-coverts for the most part rufous, freckled with dusky, quills black, tipped with white; primaries with a subterminal shade of rufous; tail-feathers slaty black; crown and nape crested, the feathers black, with arrow-shaped spots or bars of white; sides of face and sides of neck regularly barred with ocherous brown and black, with mesial white spots on the feathers on the sides of the neck; chin and upper throat uniform white; the center of the lower throat and fore neck generally pale vinaceous-buff, varied with black streaks and black mottling or bars, the feathers being browner laterally; sides of the body like the breast, similarly mottled and streaked with white; under tail-coverts white, with scarcely any black markings; under wing-coverts white mottled with dusky; axillars barred with black and white." (Sharpe.)

"Comparatively rare. Met with about the fish-pens of the natives, especially just at dusk." (Bourns and Worcester MS.)

"The eggs of the Malay bittern in the collection are of a pale bluish-white color. Two specimens measure respectively: 45.7 by 35.5; 48.2 by 35.5." (Oates.)

The above-described eggs were collected in Palawan, June 27, by Whitehead.

144. GORSACHIUS GOISAGI (Temminck).

JAPANESE BITTERN.

Nycticorax goisagi Temminck, Pl. Col. (1836), pl. 582. Gorsachius goisagi Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 169; Hand-List (1899), 1, 199; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 34.