Buller. — Notes on New Zealand Birds. 75 



partiality for the common garden snail, breaking the shell by 

 a prod of their powerful bills and tearing out the contents 

 after the manner of a true expert. Doubtless the common 

 Woodhen would do the same, in which case it would be a 

 most valuable introduction into gardens infested with snails, 

 as most of those in Wellington are. 



The Black Woodhen has all the habits of the more common 

 species, so fully described elsewhere, but it has a peculiar note, 

 frequently emitted, and responsively, when the birds are toge- 

 ther, so much like the cluckine of domestic hens that it is 

 difficult to believe one is not in the vicinity of a poultry-yard. 



Ardea maculata, Latham. (The Little Bittern.) 



I am indebted to Mr. C. A. Barton, of Hokitika, for a speci- 

 men of this Bittern, which continues to be one of our rarest 

 species. All the hitherto-recorded examples have come from 

 the South Island. 



Ardea egretta, Gmelin. (The White Heron.) 



Through the exertions of Mr. St. Clair Liardet, who informs 

 me that he was more than a week in pursuit of the birds 

 before he could get a shot, owing to their extreme shyness, 

 I have received from Collingwood a magnificent pair of the 

 White Heron, or " White Crane," as the colonists prefer to 

 call it. The plumage is of snowy whiteness throughout, and 

 both sexes are furnished with the filamentous dorsal train, 

 which is, however, richer in the male bird. 



Almost without exception, New-Zealand-killed examples at 

 all seasons of the year have the bill entirely yellow ; but a 

 specimen shot at Lake Te Anau in December last (and now 

 in Mr. Melland's possession) exhibits the entirely-black bill 

 which is a regular seasonal character with this species in 

 India. This particular bird was in beautiful plumage, with 

 ample dorsal mantle of filamentous feathers, being apparently 

 a male. 



Botaurus poeciloptilus, Wagl. (The New Zealand Bittern.) 



The young differs from the adult in its smaller size and 

 much paler plumage ; the blackish-brown on the front and 

 sides of the neck is entirely absent, there being in place 

 thereof a broad central irregular stripe of cinnamon-brown; 

 and the soft spreading plumage is of a pale-tawny colour, with 

 numerous transverse V-shaped markings of pale cinnamon- 

 brown ; the brown lanceolate markings on the breast and sides 

 of the body are paler than in the adult, and the plumage of 

 the upper surface of the body is altogether lighter and more 

 largely suffused with tawny-yellow or buff. 



