NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. yC; 



718. — BoTAUUus PcECiLOPTiLUs, Waglcr. — (558) 

 BITTERN. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vi., pi. 64. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxvi., p. 258. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — I'otts : Trans. New Zealand Inst., 



vol. ii., p. 69 (1870); BuUer : Birds of New Zealand (1873); 



also vol. ii., p. 143 (1888); Ramsay: Proc. Linn, ijoc, N.S. 



Wales, vol. vii., p. 55 (1S82) ; Campbell : Southern Science 



Record (188',). also Nests and Eggs Austn. Birds, pi. 2, fig. 



558 (1883) ; North ; Austn. Mus. Cat., p. 320, pi. 18, fig. 3 



(1889). 



Geographical Distributiiin. — Australia in general and Tasmania; 

 also New Zealand, including Chatham Islands ; New Caledonia. 



]S'est.- — A platform (about 12 to 15 inches in diameter) of dead 

 reeds, built crosswise up to 6 or 7 inches above the water, amongst the 

 rushes or reeds of a swamp. Sometimes very fine down from the birds, 

 adheres about the top of the nest. Occasionally a nest is situated in 

 long grass and solely built of that material. 



Egy^. — Clutch, four to five ; oval in shape, or slightly more com- 

 pressed at one end ; texture of shell coarse ; sui-face glossy and occasion- 

 ally rough ; colour, light or pale-olive. Dimensions in inches of a proper 

 clutch: (1) 2-05 X 1-49, (2) 2-0 x 1-47, (3) 2-01 x 1-46 (4) 1-95 x 1-38, 

 (5) 1-94 x 1-44. (Plate 26.) 



Ohxervations. — Almost every permanent reedy swamp or marsh is 

 tenanted by a pair of Bitterns, and should the swamp be vast there 

 will be more of these curious nocturnal birds. By night and by day 

 also you may hear their loud booming notes issuing from tea-tree 

 swamps in Western Australia, from like places in Eastern parts, 

 from the marshes of Tasmania or King and Flinders Islands. ine 

 Bittern wears a beautiful mottled plumage of buff or dark purplish- 

 brown, with yellow-irised eyes, so suitable for use by night. A greenish 

 coloured bill and legs complete a fair sized bird about two feet in total 

 length. Abiding constantly in swamps, the Bittern feeds on fish, frogs, 

 snails, and insects. Not much is miderstood of the natural economy of 

 the Bittern, consequently the bird has been viewed with a certain 

 amoimt of superstition. I am not sure but that its bellowing notes 

 coming from some dismal swamp have not been taken by natives, both 

 black and white, for the cry of the bunyip. However, all aborigines 

 are not superstitious about the bird, for on the Murray, near Ecliuca, 

 they know it well, and call it the " Bai--mah," and in some parts of 

 Western Australia it is called the "Biu--den-et.ch." Gould did not succeed 

 in gathering any information about the nesting habits of this night-bird. 

 It was not till 1870 that INIr. T. H. Potts described the eggs from New 

 Zealand. Some years ago, before the Cautfield swamp, near Melbourne, 



