318 BIRDS or AUSTRALIA. * 



a colony breeding on two small islets in Coral Bay, near the 

 entrance of the harbour of Port Essington. Their nests, 

 about thirty in number, were built both on the mangroves 

 and on the branches of the yellow-blossomed Hibiscus ; they 

 were very frail structures, consisting of a few small twigs 

 placed across each other on the horizontal branches, and none 

 of them were more than six feet from the ground ; each con- 

 tained either two young birds or two eggs of a uniform very 

 pale green, one inch and five-eighths long by one inch and a 

 quarter broad. 



Crown of the head, occipital crest, and a small tuft beneath 

 each eye black ; neck and all the under surface grey, with a 

 vinous tinge, which becomes much deeper on the abdomen 

 and under tail-coverts ; lengthened feathers of the back bluish 

 grey with lighter shafts ; wing-coverts dark slate-grey, nar- 

 rowly margined with buff and white ; remainder of the Avings 

 and tail dark grey ; irides light yellow ; orbits and eyelash 

 gamboge-yellow; upper mandible and cutting edge of the 

 lower mandible very dark reddish brown ; remainder of the 

 lower mandible oil-green ; tibiae and hinder part of the tarsi 

 bright yellow ; remainder of the legs and feet yellowish brown. 



Total length 14 inches ; bill 3^ ; wing 7^ ; tail 2f ; tarsi 2^. 



The young differ in having all the upper surface brown, 

 with a triangular spot of white at the tip of all the wing- 

 feathers, and the throat broadly and conspicuously striated 

 wath brown on a white ground. 



Mr. Jerdon states that the B. javanica is found throughout 

 the greater part of India, and that it extends to Burmah and 

 Malayana ; if then the bird to which I have assigned the name 

 qI B. stagnatilis should ultimately prove to be identical with 

 the Indian bird, the species will enjoy a most extensive range 

 of habitat. 



