32 AKDKID*. 



some were placed in tlie low scrubby trees, the highest one I noticed was ten feet from the 

 ground ; others were placed on top of Hat rocks beneath the scrub, but the majority were 

 under large rocks. The size and shape of the nests vary very much ; most of them were nothing 

 but a platform of sticks, about fifteen inches in diameter, and only a lew inches in height, but 

 one nest, placed between three very large rocks, stood nearly four feet fiigh; this, I 

 think, must ha\e been in use for many years. The breeding being in full swing, I saw nests 

 in all stages, but in no instance did I notice a nest with a clutch of more than three eggs or 

 young, mostly two. fn one nest I saw two young nearly fully fledged, one being snow white 

 the other of a slaty-black plumage. In one other case I saw an adult bird of each coloured 

 plumage attending to a nest with three young, all of which were of the slaty-black- plumage. 

 Both male and female assist in feeding the young, but this only takes place at low tide ; at high 

 tide the birds are to be seen perched on rocks, just above the water. Their call note is nothing 

 more than a grunt." 



From Blackwood, South Australia, Mr. Mdwin Ashby writes ; — " I met with Demiegrctta 

 sacra nesting on the north-west coast of Kangaroo Island, South .Australia, at the end of October, 

 1905. Five eggs were laid in a scantily-built nest on a ledge of rock, separated from the mam 

 land of the island, except at very low tides, and about thirty feet above sea level. The eggs 

 were partly incubated." 



From Western .Australia Mr. Tom Carter writes me : — " The Reef Heron ( Dciiiiegrctta 

 sacra) was the commonest species about Point Cloates, and the North-west Cape. The blue 

 birds were the more numerous, but the white variety was frequently seen feeding with 

 them, and they interbreed. On the 25th October, 1902, two white immature birds were 

 found in a nest, with apparently white parents, at Frazer Island. (_)n 25th September, 1894, 

 nest with one egg ; shot blue male, white female parent. 6tli September, 1901, nest with three 

 incubated eggs on sandstone cliff, on beach ; white male and blue female parents, both shot. 

 On 1st September, 1 901, found nest with three eggs, apparently white female and blue male 

 bird. 25th August, 1894, nest with three eggs, one blue and one white bird. Two and a half 

 miles from the beach, at Point Cloates, the hull of the A.S.S. " Perth " lay on the reef on its 

 side, and a pair of blue Reef Herons built their nest inside what had been the saloon. It was 

 made entirely of pieces of fencing wire, which having formed part of the cargo, was laid in 

 quantities around the wreck, and being very rusty and thin in places could be easily broken into 

 convenient lengths for building. Numbers of these birds bred in crevices and on ledges of the 

 great cliffs which overhang the salt water at Yardie Creek, North-west Cape. I have a hne 

 specimen of the white variety shot at Albany, in South-western Australia." 



The following notes were made by Dr. Lonsdale Holden, while resident at Circular Head, 

 on the north-west coast of Tasmania: — "On the ist of June, 1886, I shot a Reef Heron 

 ( Doniegrctta sacra) near Crayfish Creek, Rocky Cape ; the entire plumage was white. So far 

 as my present experience goes, when a white Heron is seen blue ones are present also ; the 

 contrary does not, however, obtain. On the iSth October, 1886, Mr. E. D. Atkinson found a 

 nest on Sister Island, with three fresh eggs. The nest, about fifteen inches in diameter, was 

 made of coarse herbage, with a little fine material in the centre, and was nearly flat. In October 

 of the preceding year he found two nests on the same island containing young birds apparently 

 about a week old. On the 2nd November, 1886, I saw a Blue Reef Heron on Pelican Island, 

 off Woolnorth. During May and June of this year I saw several of these birds on the rocks 

 between Circular Head and Rocky Cape. When it Hies it draws back its head, as it were, 

 lietween its shoulders, so that the neck presents an arched appearance, with the concavity 

 downwards and forwards. On the i6th October, 1887, I found a nest with four eggs on Sister 

 Island, off which the bird flew when I was within a few feet. It was built in the crevice between 

 two of the sharp quartzite ridges of which this island is made up, a well-formed nest of small 



