THE XA1S-£:£E^- CRAKE. 89 



The Little White Egret was a very rare and casual 

 visitant to our parts. I only saw two specimens killed 

 with us. It seemed exactly to resemble the egret at 

 home, and is, I think, one of the chastest and most elegant 

 birds in the colony. 



The SpoorMU was rare with us, and I only knew of 

 about three specimens being killed. It is an elegant 

 bird, pure white, with a fine pink tinge under each wing. 

 In some places it is very common. 



Occasionally, an odd Ihis is killed here ; and the spe- 

 cimens that I saw resembled the sacred ibis of Egypt in 

 plumage, and had not the purple tinge peculiar to the 

 ibis of Britain. It is an ugly dull-coloured bird, and 

 has a tuft of curious feathers, like a bunch of coarse hay, 

 hanging from the breast. We used to call it the straw- 

 necked ibis. The real home of the ibis is, however, far 

 inland ; and it is only when the up-country is heavily 

 flooded that they visit the districts near the coast. 



The Nanlceen Crane, or night heron, is another chaste- 

 looking bird, and a summer migrant to our parts, 

 coming down in October to breed, and leaving in the 

 autumn. The whole body-colour is pure nankeen, black 

 cheek and head, white belly, yellow eye, cere, and legs, and 

 three long white feathers, so closely joined together as to 

 appear but one hanging down from the back of the head. 

 They were far more common with us in some seasons 

 than others. The nankeen crane is strictly nocturnal in 

 its habits, sitting by day moped up in the high gum-trees 

 or tea-tree scrub, half asleep ; as soon as evening sets in, 



