24 ARDEID/E. 



tall : rinap ami dipper /ail-coverta liijltf sl(i/i/-iirfi/ : upprr iviny-coverls and innermost secondaries 

 I ike the back; remaindfr of the (juills and the tail-feathers black, shaded fvith grey; liead and neck 

 dark slate colour, the crown and elongated feathers on the nape blackish. ; forehead, entire sides of 

 face, throat and centre of the dipper portion of the fore-neck x'hile, passing into citinamoii-broicn on 

 the elongated feathers on the lower portion of the foreneck, remainder of the under surface and under 

 tail-coverts dull grey n:ashed with pale reddish-buff, ivhich is more distinct on the lengthened feathers 

 on the sides of tlie upper-breast ; bill dark blackish-brown, the basal half of the hirer mandible flesh 

 colour; skin at base of upper inandible and behind the eye greyish-hUick : legs and feel pale oUee- 

 yellow ; front of lotver portion of tarsi and front of toes dark hron-n ; iris yello/v. Total length, in 

 the flesh 25 inches, icing I..', tail 5'3, bill 3'5, tarsus .i'S. 



Adui.t fkmai.e. — Similar in plumage to the mide. 



Distrihidiou. — Xorth-vvestern Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia, Queensland, 

 New South Wales, X'ictoria, South Australia, Central /Vustralia, Western Australia, Tasmania. 

 /T^IIE well known White-fronted Heron, or " Blue Crane " as it is more often called in the 

 -L country districts, is generally distributed in favourable situations over the greater 

 portion of the Australian continent, and is likewise found in Tasmania. It is one of the earliest 

 described species of Australian birds, Phillip figuring it in his " Voyage to Botany Bay," in 

 1789, from a specimen obtained in Port Jackson, Latham subse(iuently characterising it in his 

 " Index Ornithologicus" in the following year, under the name of Ardca iinva-hollnnditr. It 

 frequents the timbered margins of rivers and creeks, mangrove flats and estuarine areas, lagoons, 

 backwaters and dams, giving preference to those waters that are overhung with trees of a large 

 growth. Go where you will, in these situations in almost any part of Australia, one is almost sure 

 to observe this species. Generally it is met with in pairs, or in small tloclcs, probably a pair of 

 adults accompanied by their young. At one time it may be seen feeding in the shallow water, 

 at another the first indication of its presence is its slowly rising in the air, with laboured lli^ht, 

 as it is disturbed from the weedy recess of a reed-bed or rush-bordered stream, which previously 

 had hidden it from view. Again it may be seen feeding on the grassy sward, but this more often 

 when it is searching for food for a brood of young, and as frequently perched on the topmost 

 branch of some dead tree, near the waterside. On Cobborah Station, Cobbora, New South 

 Wales, in company with Mr. Thos. P. Austin, in October, 1910, these birds were now and again 

 flushed from the trees that fringe the banks of the Talbragar River, as we drove along ; they 

 were also seen feeding in the long grass and rushes of a swampy depression about a mile from 

 the homestead, and at a dam near the woolshed. A nest Mr. Austin climlied toon the idth 

 October, in a tree overhanging the Talbragar River, which a week before had contained a single 

 fresh egg, was found to be empty and the bird not to be seen. In Victoria I first met with this 

 species in my early collecting days frequenting a brackish swamp, which then existed on the 

 bay side, between Albert Park and St. Kilda, separated only from the waters of Hobson Bay 

 by waste lands and sand dunes, now Middle Park. On one occasion there, while forming one 

 of a shooting party of boys, I witnessed an incident which impressed on my memory for ever 

 afterwards the need of care in dealing with wounded birds of this and allied species. A boy 

 having fired at a " Blue Crane," it fell wounded into the shallow water, and he immediately 

 waded in and caught the bird by the legs, grasping a tarse in one hand as he returned to the 

 land; on reaching there we hurried up to him to see it. To get a better \-iew he placed his 

 hand under the body of the bird, when it immediately turned up and dealt him a blow with 

 its long pointed bill, inflicting a severe wound on the side of his face, not two inches from 

 his left eye, which bled freely ; had it been a little closer it would certainly have resulted in 

 the loss of one eye. At that time it was the height of a bird-nesting boy's ambition to obtain 

 the eggs of the " Blue Crane," and this I subsequently did many years after from a nest in a 

 tree overhanging the Yarra River, near Heidelberg. 



