BY COLONEL W. V. LEGGE, F.Z.S. 81 



Back wings and tail, dark green, glossed on tlie outer webs, 

 and tinged with ashy on the shorter scapular feathers; the 

 inner webs of the longer scapular, and a longitudinal patch on 

 each side of the chest, maroon ; head, entire neck and throat, 

 white; marked eyerywhere, but on the chin and throat 

 with cinereous grey ; down the centre of the foreneck a stripe 

 of internpted black spots ; breast and under surface, dark 

 slate ; the feathers with a broad, neesial white stripe, widest 

 on the under tail coverts; a broad, white patch over the 

 point of the wing, extending along the edge to the base of 

 the outer jDrimaries. 



This Heron is distributed widely around the Australian 

 Continent, being found on the extreme north coast, though 

 not recorded from the opj^osite shores of New Guinea, 

 while on the east and south coasts it is an inhabitant of each 

 colony, likewise extending to Western Australia. Although 

 an occasional visitor to Tasmania, so far as past observation 

 shows, it may, perhaps, become more frequent if not molested 

 on its summer visits to us. It is not at all uncommon in the 

 swamps on the Murray and the plains of Eiverina. 



