90 NATTTBAL HISTORY SKETCHES. 



they wake up to feed, and the hoarse croak of this bird 

 may be heard about all the swamps and creeks through- 

 out the whole summer night. They are very easily shot 

 by day; for, when disturbed, they rise with a heavy 

 wing, and seem, like the owl, scarcely to know where to 

 fly, and soon pitch again. 



"We had another species of bittern, or heron, in shape 

 and size much resembling the nankeen crane ; but it was 

 of a light chestnut-brown colour, variegated with black, 

 and had not the long pendent feathers peculiar to that 

 bird. It was not so common, seemed to be much more 

 diurnal in its habits, and I oftener used to see them by 

 the sides of the creeks than on trees. I called it the 

 " spotted bittern," for want of a better name. 



The last on our list of the swamp birds, although cer- 

 tainly not the least, is the Native Companion, or Austra- 

 lian crane. This bird is larger than the European crane, 

 which it resembles in shape and habits ; but the colour 

 is uniform light slate-blue, with a red cere and bare head, 

 and it wants the handsome tail-feathers peculiar to our 

 crane. They are about the most wideawake birds in the 

 colony ; and, as they generally frequent the open swamps 

 and wet plains in small companies, and the old male bird 

 is always marching about on the look-out, every now and 

 then uttering his loud trumpet-like note of alarm when 

 danger is near, it is next to impossible to stalk them in 

 the open ; but, in the end of summer, they draw down 

 to the edges of the creeks, and are then easily approached 

 under cover of the tea-tree. I once dropped on a little 



