NESTS A.VD EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. q6i 



vice-versa, never occurred.' The natives of Fiji say this change (from 

 wliite to blue only) does occui-, and my having absolutely seen three 

 birds in different stages of change from white to blue or slate-colow 

 goes far to disprove the statement of Gould's correspondent, viz., ' that 

 individuals exhibiting a change from blue to white or vice-versa never 

 occurred.' " 



Students who may wish to follow this difficult, and the same time 

 interesting, subject of colouration furtherj will find some useful hints 

 in Colonel Legge's " Birds of Ceylon" (p. 1136), and in Messrs. Baird, 

 Brewer and Ridgway's "North American 'Water Birds," vol. i., pp. 43 

 and seq. 



The Sombre Egret mentioned bv Gould-' would appear to be merely 

 another variety of the Reef Heron. 



With regard to the blue variety, which Mr. E. D. Atkinson observed 

 breeding on a small island off the north-west part of Tasmania, where 

 he first took eggs in November, 1883, writing to me October, 1885, 

 Mr. Atkinson states : " Whilst walking among the rocks I flushed a Reef 

 Heron and found a nest with foiu' young birds ; looking about I got 

 a second nest with two yoimg ones. This is very .disappointing, as the 

 eggs I took previously were taken fairly fresh about the middle of 

 November, and here I get young birds in two instances on the 27th 

 October. Both nests were under shelves of slanting rock. 



" The nest, as I think I mentioned, taken on the west coast was 

 among tussocks ; the one seen yesterday, witli young birds, was a very 

 neat one, made of dead stalks about as thick as a pipe stem, and care- 

 fully hidden imder a shelf of rock. But I could find no nest with the 

 foiu' young birds wliich were older than the two, and should have thought 

 they might have wandered from it, but the chipped egg shells proved 

 they had not. The eggs must have been laid where I found the birds — 

 on the ground luider the leaning rock, and so protected from view that 

 I should never have seen them had not the bird flo\\'n out close to my 

 feet. There was probablv a third nest, as five birds were hovering 

 round me at this spot. " 



Once, on the 2oth September, Mr. Tom Carter fovmd a nest with 

 a single egg of the \^Tiite Reef Heron on Eraser Island, North-west 

 Australia. On another occasion he observed two young birds in a 

 nest, nearly fledged, and. like their parents, perfectly white. Mr. Carter 

 also sends the following cimous note : " On the wi'eck of the steamer 

 ' Perth.' on the reef here, is a nest, made originally bv a pair of Reef 

 Herons. It being too far to carry sticks, tlie birds made the nest 

 entirely of broken pieces of fencing-wire, picked up from the wrecked 

 cargo. Tliis year a pair of Black Connorants has laid in the nest." 



In Bass Strait Reef Herons commence to lay in September. In 

 the tropics, probablv, the season is different or may be variable. On 

 Hope Islands, off the North Queensland coast, Mr. D. Le Souef observed 

 fullv-fledged young in November ; while in the same locality Mr. R. 

 Hislop took several clutches of fresh eggs in April. 



' Handbook, vol. ii., p. 305. 

 61 



