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.