.„n, ] FuKi), Xulcs nil Ileyons. I3Q 



Notes on Herons. 



Rv \V. II. I'oKi), K.A.O.r., l-n/Kov (Vir.) 



In in\- boyliood days tluif used to be a i)air of W'liitc-frontod 

 llcioiis (Notuphuyx novcc -hull audi u) iicst vwvy yi'ar in the cliff 

 near tlu' Cape Otway liglithouse. I robhid tlum twice — once 

 for two and again for four eggs. They came every year to the 

 same cUff, but after the second robbing they went to a hollow 

 under a steep, overhanging rock, where they were safe from me. 

 Two or three times in nesting season I saw a pair of Wliite Recf- 

 Ilcrons {Dcinicgrdta sacra) about tlie same part of the coast, but 

 did not find the nesting-place. These are the only White J^eef- 

 Ilerons 1 have seen. 



In i()o7 we were working 15 miks wt'st of Bendigo, and near 

 our work was a y^'llow box tree in which a \Miite-fronted Heron, 

 a Magpie-Lark, and three pairs of Spotted-sided Finches had 

 their nests. One of tiie Finches was right under and against the 

 Heron's nest, and was marked by Herons' excreta. When we 

 started work the Herons had evidently just begun to sit. As we 

 were only 20 yards from the nest they were very shy, but soon 

 got used to us, and started to sit in turns, in ()-hour spells. At 

 () a.m. the Inrd that was off duty would come (piietly to the tree 

 next to the nest and give a low croak. The bird on the nest would 

 gi't up, walk quietly down the tree-limb, and fly away, to return 

 at J p.m., when the same routine was gone through. They did 

 this every day for a fortnight, when we left. I only know the 

 time from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. — our working hours — and do not know 

 how the birds shared the night duty. I .saw^ these same Herons 

 later near the tree with five young ones which were just able to 

 fly a Uttle. 



In igii, when camped on the Murray River bank near Gun- 

 bower Weir, I heard a great commotion, with angry Heron 

 screams, on the New South Wales side of the Murray River, 

 where a pair of White-fronted Herons had a nest. On coming 

 out of my tent I saw the Herons attacking a Whistling-Eagle, 

 the Eagle evidently trying to get away, with a Heron on each side 

 of him. I then lost sight of them behind the fringe of the river- 

 bank gums, but heard a terrible, agonizing scream from the Eagle 

 and jubilant cries from tlie Herons. The Herons then came back 

 to the nest tree, evidently pleased, by their notes. Five days 

 afterwards I was over the river, and picked up a dead Whistling- 

 Eagle with a hole under the left wing, very like a Heron's beak 

 wound. It looks like a case of the Herons killing the Eagle, but 

 as I did not artuall>- sc' it done I do not state positively it was 

 so. 



The White-frcjiitcd Herons in nesting-time are very loving t,o 

 each other, and do a lot of " smoodging," as humans' say. 



