^°iQo^^ 1 Mattingley, a Visit to Heronries. 5q 



goodness is usually found associated in nature. Notice the 

 discordant croaks and want of range in the musical repertoire 

 of all our graceful, long-necked birds, and those which possess 

 long tracheas or windpipes, whilst those with short necks and 

 full throats usually have sweet and melodious and a greater 

 range of calls. Fixing the climbing irons to his legs, my 

 companion scrambles up to the nest. Whilst he is so occupied 

 our boatman advisedly backs the boat away from the tree 

 trunk, so that the climber can fall into the water should the 

 climbing irons suddenly slip — a contingency that often happens — 

 and theclimber be precipitated to the bottom. After considerable 

 exertion the nest is reached, and a joyous exclamation by him 

 proclaims that he has obtained his first sight of a Night-Heron's 

 eggs. How eminently adapted is the general colour of the 

 Nankeen Night-Heron, with its dull brown, chestnut-tinged 

 plumage, o'ercapped with black, for nesting amongst rocks ; 

 their young ones' mottled plumage, too, being even more 

 pronouncedly rock-coloured than their parents'. In some parts 

 of Australia the Night-Herons build their nests on rocks. The 

 reason that these birds took to nesting in the rookeries at the 

 Murray is no doubt due to the large quantities of food procur- 

 able in these places, and to some causes that militate against 

 their occupying what seems to me to be their natural habitat 

 amongst the rocks. 



Further on we observe several White Egrets {Herodias 

 tiinoriensis), and on closer inspection we discover several 

 smaller Plumed Egrets {McsopJioyx plumifera) sitting on their 

 bulky stick nests, which are somewhat less in size than the 

 Night- Heron's, and not so frequently underwoven with gum 

 leaves, although the Night-Herons also build nests similar 

 to the Plumed Egrets when viewed from below, only a little 

 larger. The Plumed Egret's nest measures about 13 to 14 

 inches in diameter, anci is almost imperceptibly shallower than 

 the Night- Heron's. Longing glances were cast at the nests, 

 but as the lowest limb was much too high for our 70-foot rope 

 ladder we searched for more favourably situated ones built on a 

 tree that lent itself to our climbing tackle. Paddling through 

 the timber we were able to ascertain the extent of the heronry 

 of White Egrets, and computed their numbers to be about 150 

 individuals — the remnant of a once larger colony, which, we 

 were informed, must have totalled originally about 700 birds, 

 but which, owing to the demand for their back plumes for the 

 adornment of ladies' hats, had been decimated by plume- 

 hunters and reduced to the present number of about 150 birds. 

 The only method by which the hunters are able to obtain 

 Egrets' plumes in quantities is to shoot the birds on their nests, 

 since- at this period they arc more readily approached, and 

 allow a person to get within gunshot. Owing to the shyness of 



