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.