342 MR. E. P. RAMSAY ON THE BIRDS OF [Apr. 17, 
met with in similar situations to the preceding (H. alba). I have 
found it a considerable distance inland on the rivers Hunter, Cla- 
rence, and Richmond; it is more plentiful to the northward of New 
South Wales, and found rather numerous in Moreton Bay and Wide 
Bay, and at the mouth of the Fitzroy river, and near Port Denison. 
It is not a common species about Cardwell ; but Inspector Johnstone, 
of the Herbert river, informed me that they were more plentiful a 
little further north, on the Johnstone river and Moryllian harbour. 
233. HrRopIAS GARZETTA. 
Herodias garzetta, Gould, Handbk. B. Austr. i. p. 305. 
This species is a very scarce bird on the Australian coast; I have 
never met with it but once in a state of nature, at the mouth of the 
Brisbane river. I have seen only three examples in Australian col- 
lections, all of them obtained from Queensland. 
234. DEMIEGRETTA JUGULARIS. 
Demiegretta jugularis, Gould, Handbk. B. Austr. ii. sp. 555 & 
556, pp. 307-309. 
Demiegretta greyi, ibid. p. 309. 
I did not meet with this species myself; but Mr. George Masters 
informs me that it is found rather plentiful on all the reefs in 
Northern Queensland, and that D. jugularis and D. greyi are 
one and the same species. From an examination of a fine series of 
these birds in the Macleayan Museum at Elizabeth Bay, I quite 
concur with Mr. Gould’s and Mr. Masters’s opinion. Remains of 
the slaty blue being found on the primaries and wing-coverts of 
some of the white birds tends to prove that D. greyi is but the adult 
of D. jugularis. 
235. NycricoRaAxX CALEDONICUS. 
Nycticorax caledonicus, Gould, Handbk. B. Austr. 11. p. 311. 
This handsome species has a very extensive range, it is plentiful, 
and breeds among the mangroves on the Hunter river, and as far 
south as Illawarra, It is found equally plentiful as far north as 
Cardwell, where, on the Herbert river, it was one of the most common 
species. Mr. Gould remarks that it “is universally dispersed over 
the continent of Australia.”” I have also seen what I believe to be 
a young bird of this species from New Ireland, collected there by 
the Rev. G. Brown. 
236. BorauRUS POICILOPTILUS. 
Botaurus poiciloptilus, Gould, Handbk. B. Austr. ii. p. 313. 
The Australian Bittern is far more plentiful in the Ilawarra and 
southern districts of New South Wales than in any other part of the 
country I have visited. I have seen specimens from the lakes and 
marshes in the southern parts of Victoria, near Ballarat, and have 
also noticed it on the Herbert river, in the Rockingham-Bay district, 
where it is considered a rare bird, although that part of the country 
