Ardea cinnamomea Gmelin, Syst. Nat. (1788), 1, pt. 2, 643.
Ardetta cinnamomea Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1898), 26, 236;
Hand-List (1899), 1, 203; Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1898),
4, 402, fig. 98 (head); Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 132;
McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 35.
Ba-caú ca-né-lo, Manila.
Bohol (McGregor); Catanduanes (Whitehead); Cebu (Bourns &
Worcester); Guimaras (Steere Exp.); Leyte (Everett); Luzon
(Everett, Whitehead, McGregor); Marinduque (Steere Exp.); Mindanao
(Everett, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester); Mindoro (Steere Exp.,
Everett, Bourns & Worcester, McGregor, Porter); Palawan (Bourns
& Worcester); Panay (Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester); Samar
(Whitehead); Sibuyan (McGregor); Tablas (Bourns & Worcester);
Tawi Tawi (Bourns & Worcester); Ticao (McGregor). China,
Eastern Siberia, Indian Peninsula, Indo-Malayan subregion;
Celebes in winter.
"Adult male.--Entirely cinnamon-rufous above, including wings and tail;
sides of face and ear-coverts cinnamon-rufous; cheeks a little lighter
rufous; throat ashy white, with a median streak of tawny-rufous,
which extends down throat and fore neck, being streaked with blackish
longitudinal marks on the outer webs of the feathers; lower throat,
fore neck, breast, sides of body, and thighs tawny-rufous; abdomen
white; under tail-coverts tawny-buff; on sides of upper breast a
patch of dependent feathers, having black centers with tawny-buff
or rufous margins; under wing-coverts tawny-buff; axillars and
under surface of quills pale chestnut. 'Eyelids and facial skin
reddish purple; bill nearly all yellow, the culmen alone being dark
brown; legs and toes yellowish green; claws brown; iris yellow to
pale red.' (Oates.) Length, 279; culmen, 46; wing, 140; tail, 41;
tarsus, 48.
"Adult males in winter appear to be a little more dingy on the upper
parts than in summer, the head and back being shaded with grayish
brown.
"Adult female.--Mantle and back uniform dark brown; wing-coverts dingy
brown, but mottled with sandy-buff margins and checkered notches,
which appear also on scapulars and inner secondaries, and have also
subterminal markings of darker brown on many of the coverts; greater
coverts, primary-coverts, and quills chestnut, with a good deal
of dusky at base and on the inner webs, primary-coverts also dusky
towards the ends; tail-feathers dull chestnut; crown and nape dusky
brown; frilled feathers on the sides of neck brown in the center, with
yellowish margins; sides of face yellowish buff, streaked with brown;
whole of the under surface yellowish buff, very thickly streaked with
dark brown, sides of throat whiter, feathers composing the broad mesial
streak down the middle of throat and fore neck having a distinct rufous
shade; on each side of the upper breast a patch of dependent plumes,
black in the center with yellowish-buff margins; thighs chestnut; under
wing-coverts yellowish buff like the chest; axillars and quill-lining
dull chestnut, the feathers with a good deal of gray in them. 'Facial
skin, margins of upper mandible, and nearly the whole of the lower
mandible yellow, remainder of bill black; back of tarsus and soles
yellow; claws yellowish brown; iris yellow.' (Oates.) Length, 330;
culmen, 51; wing, 136; tail, 43; tarsus, 44.
"The young birds are very like the female, as determined by Mr. Oates
and myself, but the whole back is variegated with yellowish-buff spots
and markings, as well as the wings, so that the uniform brown mantle
is a sign of the adult female, and the spotted mantle of a young
bird. Mr. Everett gives the soft parts of a young female as follows:
'Legs and feet bright olive-green; bill greenish yellow at base,
the culmen of a dark olive-brown tint; iris golden yellow.'
"Considerable variation in the tint of the cinnamon plumage of this
species is observable in a series, and specimens from more southern
localities are decidedly the darker and richer in color." (Sharpe.)
Genus NANNOCNUS Stejneger, 1887.
Very similar to Ixobrychus but the lower part of tibia unfeathered
and the quills and tail-feathers blackish.