66 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



The White-fronted Heron or Blue-crane {Kotophoyx novce- 



hoUandiif Latham). 



Gould's Handbook, vol. II, p. 399, No. 548 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 60, No. 119. 



Though correctly-informed persons and naturalists call this bird the 

 White-fronted Heron, the bushman knows it as tlie Blue-crane. It cannot, 

 however, be properly placed among the true cranes, which are all large birds 

 of quite a different build, typically represented in Australia by our Native 

 Companion. 



This bird has an even wider range outside Australia and Tasmania than 

 the Nankeen Heron, for beyond New Zealand it ranges through the Loyalty 

 Islands, New Caledonia, New Guinea, and the Moluccas. It is common on 

 the low sandy beaches of our coast land? as well as around shallow swamps, 

 lakes, and marshes inland. Always busy, running quickly over the grass 

 and rushes or wading up to its knees in the mudd}' water, it captures unwary 

 crayfish, frogs, small crustaceans, and among them the small freshwater 

 snail that is the host of lie larval fluke before it infests the liver of the 

 sheep.* On the sand it gets many ground insects, and in the time of locust 

 plagues lends a hand to the ibis and wood-swallows in destroying these 

 grass- eating pests. 



Its nest is a flat structure made of sticks and a little grass, placed upon 

 the horizontal branch of a tree usually overhanging the water, and contains 

 four delicate bluish-green eggs, which in my young days were looked upon as 

 a prize by any collector of birds' eggs. 



Like the Nankeen Heron, this graceful bird adds a charm to the landscape, 

 but is much more noticeable on account of its active daylight habits. Every- 

 one who watches a Blue-(U"ane wiil see what a busy useful bird it is as 

 it engages on its accustomed duties. 



The Nankeen Night-heron {Nycticorax caledomcus Latham). 

 Gould's Handbook, vol. II, p. 311, No. 557 ; Leach's Bird Book, p. 61, No. 123. 



This is a common heron found not only all over Australia and Tasmania 

 but also in New Zealand, and ranging north as far as the Celebes in the 

 Malay Archipelago. 



In the early summer months, on the banks of the Murray River near 

 Ounbower, I have often roused out a dozen or more from the shelter of 

 the foliage of the giant red-gums, where, resting with the head and neck 

 bunched down on their shoulders, they were very easily overlooked in spite 

 of their size, as long as they remained stationary. When flapping out into 

 the bright sunlight they appeared to be quite dazed, and soon sought the 

 nearest shelter. 



•Dr. Cobb asserts that the White-fronted Heron devours enormous quantities of 

 Bulirius, the mollusc which serves as the host of the sheep-fluke. A single snail of this 

 species will often harbour several hundred of the intermediate forms of the fluke. See 

 " The Sheep Fluke," by Dr. N. A. Cobb, Agricultural Gazette, July, 1897. 



