Geographic range.—Eastern China, Japan, Riu Kius, Formosa, and Philippine Islands. In Micronesia: Palau Islands—Koror.
Remarks.—Gorsachius goisagi has been recorded from Koror in the Palau Islands. It may be classed as a rare migrant to western Micronesia.
Gorsachius melanolophus melanolophus (Raffles)
Malay Bittern
Ardea melanolopha Raffles, Trans. Linn. Soc. London, 13, 1822, p. 326. (Type locality, Western Sumatra.)
Nycticorax goisagi Hartlaub and Finsch, Proc. Zool. London, 1868, pp. 8, 118 (Pelew); idem, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1872, p. 89 (Pelew); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 68 (Pelew).
Nycticorax melanolophus Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, pp. 5, 35 (Palau).
Gorsachius melanolophus Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., 26, 1898, p. 166 (Pelew).
Gorsahius melanolophus melanolophus Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 184 (Pelew); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 204 (Palau); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 302 (Palau).
Gorsachius melanolophus melanolophus Mathews, Syst. Avium Australasianarum, 1, 1927, p. 200 (Pelew).