30 AKIiKlIlJ. 



I'rom Western Australia Mr. Tom Carter wrote me ; — " Notophoyx pacifica was not 

 uncommon about Point Cloates and the Nortii-webt Cape, and was to be seen at the inland 

 pools and occasionally on the beach. It was exceedingly wary." 



From Circular Head, on the north-west coast of Tasmania, Dr. Lonsdale J lolden wrote 

 me : — " On the 3rd May, iSya, a specimen of Afdca pncificn was sent me from the Black River. 

 It was a female, and on dissecting it I found in the crop a crab, a small rock cod, and some tiny 

 eels. On the 17th May I had another specimen brought to me. In the following September 

 one was shot at Detention Creek, and a female was brought to me on the 12th of that month 

 with the head and neclc almost white." 



The eggs are usually four, rarely five, in number for a sitting, elliptical or oval in form, 

 and of a uniform pale greenish-blue, the shell being comparatively close-grained, smooth and 

 lustreless. A set of four taken by the late Mr. K. H. Bennett on Bank's Station, Lachlan 

 River, New South Wales, on the 30th November, i8go, measures: — Length (A) 2-12 x. 1-58 

 inches; (B) 2-12 x 1-57 inches; (C) 2-07 x i'57 inches; (D) 2-07 x 1-58 inches. A set of 

 four taken by Mr. H. G. Barnard, at Coomooboolaroo, Duaringa, Queensland, on the loth 

 October, 1893, tueasures : — Length (z\) 2-1 x 1-57 inches; (B) 2-09 x 1-55 inches; (C) 2-07 

 X i-55inches; (D)2-i2 x i-58inches. The latter specimen is represented on Plate B. .Will., 

 figure 1. Another set of four taken by Mr. S. Robinson on the 6th August, iqog, in Southern 

 Queensland, measures : — Length (A) 2-05 x 1-53 inches; (B) 2-08 x 1-5 inches; (C) 2-03 ■< 

 i'53 inches; (D) 2-i x 1-5 inches. 



Young birds differ from the adults in bein^ destitute of the plumes on the upper parts, 

 which are distinctly shaded with brown, and in having only a slif^ht indication here and there of 

 greenish gloss ; most of the upper wing-coverts are broadly streaked with white ; head and neck 

 dull white, with a streak about two inches long of blackish spots in the centre of the neck, the 

 remaining feathers on the lower portion of the neck indistinctly spotted with blackish-brown; 

 foreneck white, passing into buffy-white on the apical portions of the feathers, and narrowly 

 streaked or sparingly spotted with blackish-brown ; remainder of the feathers on the under 

 surface Imig and downy, white in the centre, fuliginous-grey on their margins, the latter being 

 almost obsolete on the centre of the abdomen and the under tail-coverts; sides of the body 

 fuliginous-grey. Wing 14-5 inches. 



August and the five following months constitute the usual breeding season in Eastern 

 -Australia, but nests with eggs are more frequently found in October and November. 



Demiegretta sacra. 



KEEF HERON. 

 Arde.a sacra, Gmel., Syst. Nat., Toiu. I., p. 640 (1788). 

 Herodian juytdaria, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. VI., pi. GO (1848). 

 Herodias (jreyi, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. VI., pi. 61 (1848). 

 Demii't/refla jiigularu, Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. II. , p. 307 (1865). 

 Demifgrt'l/a yreyi, Gould, Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. II., p. 309 (1865). 



Demiegrella sacra, Sliarpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXVI., p. 137 (1898); id., Hand-1. Bds., 

 Vol. I., p. 198 (1899). 

 Adult (dark form). — General colour aJiove and hrlow slalij-hlack, centre of the throat white, the 

 cro'fH of the heaii almost black, the phimes on the nape and /o/ver portion of fori-neck much elougated. 



