statement "assert (x) == y;" doesn't compile

The assertion statement in the following example program fails to compile on Merlin Beta b59:

class Asserts {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
assert (args.length & 1) == 0;
    }
}

[terrier] 84 % javac -source 1.4 Asserts.java
Asserts.java:3: ';' expected
assert (args.length & 1) == 0;
                                 ^
Asserts.java:3: incompatible types
found : int
required: boolean
assert (args.length & 1) == 0;
                            ^
2 errors

I observed both of the following alternatives compile with no errors
(and behave as expected):

assert ((args.length & 1) == 0);
assert 0 == (args.length & 1);