DKMIKl.RKTTA. .'J 1 



(If lalh'i- lauwolaled; the webs of a heft of feathers on the hack deonapused : bill yelloirish-yreeu ; 

 legs mid feet t/reen, soles of feet yellow. Total length in the flesh .',11:5 inches, iviny 11, tail .',•■'>, 

 id I -l-S, tarsus :i. 



AXWLT (\\i2,\\tioni\)—" Entire phuiiniie n-hUe:fue lani-'ul„te pi mwf: on lower back, sundler 

 onrx i,n n,pper breast, and still stn/tller on the nape : bill hro/vnishalate, darkest oil the culmen and. 

 j>ider towards the tip; legs blackish-slate in front, greenish-yellow behind; knees greenish-yellow \ 

 feet greenish-yellow, soles briglit lemon colour ; iris bright yellon' ; eyelids yellon: : bare skin aronud, 

 the eye bluish slate colour. Totnl length in the /Ush .'!)ro inches, n'ing 11:',, bill from gape ■:,'!>, 

 tnrsns .1" (Holden). 



/:'/5/n7w/w;/.— North-western Australia, Northern Territory of South Australia, Oueensland, 

 New South Wales, \'ictoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Islands of Bass Strait, 

 Tasmania. 



/T^HE Reef Heron is found in favourable situations all around the coast line of Australia, 

 -L and also frequents some of the larger islands of Bass Strait and the northern and 

 western coasts and contiguous islands of Tasmania. It has a wide ultra-Australian range, 

 inhabiting most of the islands of the Pacific, the Malay Archipelago, the islands of the eastern 

 and south-eastern coasts of Asia, and coasts and contiguous islands of the Malayan and Indian 

 Peninsulas. Much has been written about the dark and light forms exhibited by this species, 

 dark slate-coloured birds and white birds being frequently seen together, and as will be seen 

 later on by Mr. Thos. P. Austin's notes, found in the same nest. Adult birds of both sexes may, 

 therefore, be of either or both these colours, or even parti-coloured. Formerly they were re"-arded 

 as distinct species, the dark-coloured form being described under the name of Dewicgrdta sacra, 

 and the white form as Dcmici^nita (;rcyi. The measurements given by the late Dr. K. Bowdler 

 Sharpe, in the " Catalogue of Birds in the British Museum," are much less than those of average 

 South Australian and Tasmanian examples, which total jo inches in the flesh and 11-5 inches 

 in wmg-measurement. He has, however, pointed out the disparity in size of specimens from 

 different localities, and quotes Mr. Allan Hume's notes on the excessive variation in the colour 

 of the soft parts. Among the large number of specimens Dr. Sharpe there enumerated, is an 

 adult skin received from the Trustees of the Australian Museum, obtained at Port Jackson. 

 This species still frequents the neighbourhood of Port Jackson, and although I have never 

 noted it in Sydney Harbour, a pair used to frequent the clififs between the Gap and the South 

 Head Lighthouse. It may still, however, be met with at intervals along the rocky coast-line 

 beyond Manly, also on the reef below the cliffs at Bulgolo Head, on the ocean side of Newport. 

 I have never, however, at any time observed the white form, all have been dark slate-coloured 

 birds, neither is there a specimen in the Australian Museum Collection ; I have, therefore, 

 transcribed Dr. Lonsdale Holden's description of a white bird he shot on the rocks near Rocky 

 Cape, on the north-west coart of Tasmania. Farther north in New South Wales the Reef 

 Heron becomes more plentiful, and Mr. H. R. Elvery has a set of its eggs taken on the coast 

 near Ballina. It is still more common on the reefs and islets of the Queensland, Northern 

 Australian and North-western .Australian coasts. From the former Stale I have received its 

 eggs, taken by Mr. Frank Hislop on Hope Island, and Mr. Thos. P. .Yustin observed it breeding 

 in numbers on Red-bill Island, on the Great Barrier Reef, in November, igo8. 



Mr. Thos. P. Austin, of Cobborah Station, Cobbora, New South 'Wales, writes me as 

 follows :— " I first saw the Reef Heron (Demiegvetta sacra) on Half Tide Island, ten miles south 

 from Ma:ckay, North Queensland, on November i6th, 1907, but during the next few days I had 

 splendid opportunities of seeing it nesting in great numbers, especially at Red-bill Island, on 

 the Great Barrier Reef, where there must have been between two and three hundred birds, 

 many of which were breeding. Their nests were to be seen on all parts of the island, from just 

 above high water mark up to the highest point (two hundred feet), and in various situations, 



