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NESTS AA'D EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



Malayan region? However, it is now generally admitted by modem 

 ornithologists that certain species of Herons have two phases of plumage 

 — one blue, the other white — though probably there is yet a good deal 

 more to be learnt before the right explanation of observed facts is given. 

 Moreover, parti-coloured birds have also been observed. 



Professor Moseley (" Notes by a Natui-alist on the ' Challenger ' ") 

 states: "A small Heron ( Demier/retta aacrd ) wades about on the coral 

 reefs at Tonga, and catclies small fish, and is also to be seen frequently 

 inland all over the island. This bird changes its plumage from pure 

 white to uniform grey, and all stages of parti-coloured plumage were to 

 be seen during oui- visit. Contraiy to the usual rule, the bird is white 

 when young, and dark in the matm-e state. ; Hence the ancestors must 

 have been white, and the race is assuming a. darker phunage for 

 protection." 



Prompted by my article on Reef Herons, which appeai-ed in " The 

 Australasian," 24th February, 1894, Mr. F. Arthur Jackson, of, Jackson 

 Dale, Fiji, sent the following valuable testimony respecting the transition 

 stage of plumage of these bu'ds. He wrote : " Dui-ing a residence of 

 twenty-six years in Fiji I have had many opportunities of observing both 

 the blue or slate-colourod Heron ( Demiegretta sacra ) .a.nA the piUT white 

 vai-iety, and until this year I was under the belief that they were distinct 

 species. A constant puzzle wa.s that I more frequently obsei-\'cd pairs 

 consisting of a blue bird and a white bird together, than pairs of blue 

 or pairs of white. The natives of Fiji have only one name for the blue 

 Heron and the white Heron, viz., ' Belo.' If asked to distinguish 

 them they call the white ' Belo Vuso,' and the blue ' Belo Loa,' mean- 

 ing white ' Belo ' or Heron, and black or dark ' Belo ' or Heron. They 

 believe that both varieties are white when young, and change to blue 

 or slate-coloured after tliey have reached maturity. The Fijian natives 

 have a name for the bird when in process of changing, its phunage from 

 white to blue or slate-coloiu'ed. They then call it ' belo sa rewa.' This 

 year, for the; first time during my long residence in Fiji, I have seen 

 three different birds at the ' belo sa rewa ' stage — i.e., in that stage when 

 they change phunage from piu'c white to blue or slate-coloured. The 

 first' I saw let me get within twenty paces (they are veiy tame in the 

 outlying districts and islands of Fiji) before rising ; and, to my gi-eat 

 surprise, I noticed a white Heron with blue stripes or bars across the 

 body and wings. Before I saw this bird I had disbelieved the natives' 

 story touching the ' belo sa rewa.' I afterwards got close to another 

 marked like the first, and a fortnight ago I saw one nearly all blue or 

 slate-coloiu:ed, with only a patch of white on the back, and part of the 

 tail feathers wei-e blue and part white. My reason for troubling you 

 with this note is a statement, made by a correspondent of the gi'eat 

 Australian observer, Gould, which you quote in your paper, ' Some 

 Australian Birds,' in ' The Australasian ' of 24th Fcbiiiary, 1894. 

 Gould's correspondent (quoted by you) says : ' From the circumstance 

 of my always having found this (the white bird) and the dark-coloiu-ed 

 species in company, I considered them as the same bird in different 

 stages of plumage, their size and proportion being so similar, and was 

 surprised that individuals exhibiting a change from blue to white, or 



