ic5 White, North Australian Birds. [i5t^"jan 



Full-fledged Voting. — Variable. Iris yellow tinged with green, 

 bill streaked brown and fleshy-brown or olive-brown and pale 

 yellowish-green ; legs greenish-yellow or yellow faintly tinged with 

 green. Feathers of the head, neck, and under surface white ; in some 

 birds the crown of the head is reddish-buff or grey ; in others the 

 crown of the head and the abdomen are slate colour. 



Young of this Egret are the most fearless of all ; on being approached 

 they crowd to the centre of the nest, crouch down, and with their 

 bills pointing directly at you impart the appearance of hiding 

 behind the points of their bills. Occasionally one walks off and 

 falls to the ground or into the water, but on being replaced the 

 youngster crouches down at once. The young were never seen to 

 eject the contents of their stomachs. 



The adult birds are most interesting to watch. They are quite 

 fearless, and perch on their nests till you get within a few feet of 

 them, and if you stand still they return within 6 feet of you and 

 calmly feed their young or sit on their eggs, as the case may be. On 

 returning to the nest the crest is erected and spread fan-like, the 

 elongated feathers curving towards the tip of the bill, giving the 

 bird a most graceful appearance. When driving off intruders or 

 when quarrelling amongst themselves — say over a fish that two 

 or more birds have pounced on at the same instant — the crest and 

 body feathers are erected, wings are outspread, and, with bill agape, 

 the appearance of a bird is most formidable. They savagely attack 

 any strange young that wander near their nests, pecking with their 

 bill and buffeting with their wings until the stranger escapes into the 

 branches or falls into the water beneath. 



The Pied Egrets are the rogues of the rookery. Numbers may 

 be seen tormenting the young of the other three species until, under 

 compulsion, the latter eject the contents of their stomachs, where- 

 upon there is a scramble for the spoil. Some of the teasing birds 

 alight on the water and swim round after the ejected fish ; others 

 take it on the wing off the water, while others, clinging sideways 

 to the stems of the mangrove trees, climb down to secure their share 

 of the half-digested food. Nothing comes amiss to them. I noticed 

 one pick up and swallow a small water snake, about 15 inches long, 

 that was basking in the sun on the trunk of a mangrove. A Pied 

 Egret was seen to fly to a nest that H. timoriensis had just quitted, 

 pick up an egg, and drop it overboard. They were repeatedly seen 

 at the nests of other birds, and numbers of the eggs that I examined 

 bore bill-marks. However, I did not see Pied Egrets eating eggs, 

 but I would not be at all surprised if they do. An unguarded nest 

 of the large H. timoriensis attracted the attention of a Pied bird, 

 which began to hop up from branch to branch, keeping a good 

 look-out the while, until it reached the nest. After a short examina- 

 tion the bird started to pull the nest to pieces, and when the owner 

 returned it flew off and joined a crowd of its fellow-marauders. 

 These Egrets are repeatedly seen at the unguarded nests of G. nigripes 

 and M. plumifera, stealing sticks and adding them to their own nests. 

 They pull out as many as a dozen sticks before they get one that 

 suits their taste. I never saw them interfere with the eggs of either 

 of those two species, neither did I observe any eggs with bill-marks. 



A female N. flavirostris was seen sheltering small young on a frail 

 nest about 10 feet away from where I was observing. Presently 

 the male came along with a stick in his bill ; on reaching the nest he 



