NYCTICORAX. 35 



there about dusk, but the birds were somewhat persecuted by boys with catapults from the 

 street. About eighteen months previously the gardener brought to Mr. Fletcher a recently 

 hatched young one, also portion of the shell of a Night Heron's egg, found underneath the same 

 tree. The young one was again placed beneath the tree, so that the old birds might attend to 

 its wants, but it had disappeared the following day, and nothing was afterwards learned of its 

 fate. 



The adults of both sexes are alike in plumage, but the young birds of both sexes are widely 

 different in colour, so much so that it would be a pardonable error if one had described them 

 as belonging to a distinct species. 



Stomachs of specimens examined contained the remains of small fish, frogs, aquatic insects 

 and crustaceans. 



From Alstonville, Richmond River, New South Wales, Mr. Henry R. Elvery sent me the 

 followmg notes :— " When on a visit to the Egret rookery on Stony Island, Tuckiana Swamp, 

 Richmond River, on the 29th November, 1899, I found several new nests of the Nankeen Night 

 Heron (Nydicorax ialedonicus). The nests were somewhat similar in construction to the nests of 

 Hei-odms alha, but smaller, situated apart from the Egret rookery, and built near the ground. 

 Two eggs were subsequently removed from each nest for me by my brother-in-law, to whom I 

 showed the nests. My last visit to the island, in 1899, was on the 21st December, when 1 

 found another nest of this species containing two eggs." 



Mr. George Savidge wrote me as follows from Copmanhurst, Upper Clarence District, 

 New South Wales:— "The Nankeen Night Heron (,Vir/;V(i;'(;,i idledonicus) is sparingly dispersed 

 along the whole watershed of the Clarence River. I have seen it in the open swampy country 

 below Grafton, also in pairs on small flats on the upper reaches of the river ; and sometimes, 

 too, it may be flushed from the scrubby timber along the creeks that run into the main river. 

 I have never been fortunate enough, nor have any of my friends here, to find its nest and eggs; 

 although I have on several occasions seen young birds, in mottled brown plumage. There are 

 always a few pairs inhabiting the thick brush fringing the river close to Copmanhurst, and 

 It seems remarkable that we have never found it breeding there. A large colony came regularly 

 every morning at dawn of day and roosted in a small scrubby patch of timber that stood close 

 to the homestead of my friend, Mr. Collett, who lives on the island at the back of Ulmarra. On 

 the approach of night they dispersed over the surrounding swamps. Mr. Collett, who has had 

 exceptional chances of studying all kinds of swamp birds and wild fowl, tells me he has never 

 known them to breed there, nor has he ever found their breeding place. I believe they are 

 migratory and wander about a great deal ; one season I noticed a large colony in a creek which 

 was studded with Oak trees, and adjacent to a swamp close to Copmanhurst." 



Mr. Thos. P. Austin wrote me from Cobborah Station, Cobbora, New South Wales :— " The 

 only occasion upon which I have had the pleasure of seeing Nviticoi-a.x caledomcui nesting was 

 on 6th December, 1910. While on a visit with Mr. A. F. B. Hull to Port Stephens, New 

 South Wales, we were informed that a large number of these biids used to breed on a small 

 island m Nelson Bay. As we approached we could see the Herons in the tree tops in dozens. 

 Upon landing we were confronted with a very thick tangled mass of scrub, which fortunately 

 did not extend over the whole island, only growing from twenty to thirty yards upwards from 

 high water mark. After walking around the side of the island about one hundred yards, we 

 discovered a gap through which we could walk fairly comfortably ; this afterwards proved to 

 be the only spot on the whole island where we could walk through this tangled scrub. Once 

 through this we were amongst various species of trees growing so closely together that it was 

 only here and there we could see the sun, and in almost every tree there was from one to eight 

 nests of these Herons, many of which contained young birds in all stages, and many more with 

 eggs. I must have climbed well over a hundred trees examining these nests, and in no nest did 



