82 FUNAFUTI ATOLL. 



One adult specimen obtained on the reefs near the village. 

 Throat whitish, remainder of the plumage dark slate-colour. 

 Fairly common on the reefs and beaches, specimens being seen 

 in all stages of plumage, white, dark slate colour, and parti- 

 coloured birds. Dr. Finsch, who met with this species in the 

 Gilberts, writes as follows in his interesting " Letters from the 

 Pacific"*: 



"Ardea sacra was more plentiful than in the Marshalls, and 

 on some places not at all shy, coming close to the huts of the 

 natives and perching on the neighbouring trees. That white and 

 slate-coloured specimens belong to one and the same species is a 

 well known fact, which I confirmed formerly by the investigation 

 of full materials received from the Pacific, and which I can now 

 verify from my own experience. In Butari-tari I saw uniformly 

 white birds going always in pairs ; I also saw pairs, undoubtedly 

 male and female, of which the one was white the other slate- 

 coloured, or both of the latter colour or mixed with white. There 

 seems to be no regularity of sex or age, for even birds in the dirty 

 pale slate garb, which I always took for the first plumage, proved 

 to be old. 



When on Tarowa, 12th December, a gentleman of the vessel 

 went out shooting, and brought home six specimens ; there were 

 two males slate-coloured, one female white, spotted with slate, 

 one female uniformly white. All the females, even one which I 

 thought to be a young bird, had very small ovaries, but a large 

 patch destitute of feathers (a so-called breeding patch) covering 

 the whole belly. The gentleman told me that he had met a whole 

 colony of this Heron in some shrubs, and that he felt sure they 

 would have nests there. We intended to visit the spot again, 

 but were disappointed, for the vessel was not going in pursuit of 

 eggs and birds but natives, and to make a harvest the brig had 

 to leave, so we could not remain behind." 



This species has been found breeding on the small islets lying 

 off the north-east coast of Australia, also on the islands of Bass 

 Strait. The nests are built of small sticks and are placed in low 

 trees, or are constructed of coarse grasses and hidden under the 

 shelter of an overhanging ledge of rock. The eggs are of a pale 

 greenish-white, and vary in shape from a true ellipse to swollen 

 oval, an average specimen measures 1-95 x T4 in. Nests found 

 by Mr. Macgillivray on the islands off the north-east coast of 

 Australia and Torres Strait contained two eggs for a sitting, 

 those found by Mr. J. A Boyd in Fiji had three eggs, while nests 

 found by Dr. Holden on the islands adjacent to the north-west 

 coast of Tasmania contained from two to four eggs for a sitting. 

 Three, however, is the usual number laid in the latter locality. 



* Ibis, 1880, p. 432. 



