Butorides spodiogaster Sharpe, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club (1894),
3, 17; Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 182, pl. 2; Hand-List
(1899), 1, 200; Mearns, Phil. Jour. Sci. (1907), 2, sec. A, 353.
Palawan (Mearns). Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
"Adult.--Similar to B. javanica, but darker gray on the under
surface, which is of a sooty-slate color with a slight tinge of
rusty on the abdomen, cheeks and ear-coverts uniform slate-color. It
much resembles B. stagnatilis, especially the birds from Flores,
but it is not so dingy underneath and has a less shade of rusty on
the abdomen. 'Bill black, lower portion of lower mandible, from base
to tip, edged pale horny; front of tarsus, toes, and claws brownish
green, bare portion of tibia and back of tarsus dirty greenish yellow;
naked skin round eye dull green, tinged with yellow in front; eyelids
deep green.' (Hume.) Length, 445; culmen, 60; wing, 193; tail, 53;
tarsus, 43." (Sharpe.)
This species differs from both B. javanica and amurensis in its much
darker color, particularly of the under parts which are nearly uniform
slate-gray; the white of chin and throat is much restricted and on the
fore breast is reduced to a few shaft-lines; all of the wing-coverts
are edged with dull rusty buff. The specimen collected by Mearns near
Palawan measures: Wing, 165; tail, 58; culmen from frontal feathers,
60; tarsus, 47; middle toe with claw, 50.
Genus BUBULCUS Bonaparte, 1854.
Non-breeding plumage all white; legs and nails black; primaries and
secondaries about equal in length; exposed culmen less than middle
toe with claw, the latter less than tarsus.