PLOTUS NOViE H0LLANDIJ5. 



(Hew Holland Barter.) 



Ma^le --Throat for two inches, aiul a broad stripe from the bill chiwii the middle of the neck, glossy white ; head, back of the neck, and upper 

 surface, black, glossy, and slightly tinged with green ; front of the neck, rasty brown ; wing coverts, dull bulf margined with black ; 

 scapularies, lanceolate, with a central stripe of dull bulf, and margined with black ; the four internal tertiaries have a broad stripe of dull 

 buff on their outer webs immediately adjoining the quill, the rest and all the primaries, shining greyish black ; the largest and lowest of the 

 tertiaries and uppermost tail feathers, corrugated transversely on the outer webs ; plumage generally, wiry and stiff. 



Female— Crown of the head, back of neck, and upper part of back, blackish brown, with greyish margin to the feathers of the 

 latter; throat and under surface, buffy white; remaining parts very much like the male, excepting the white marks on the wing coverts, which 

 are larger; bill, blackish green, the basal portion, yellow ; feet, pale yellow; irides, yellow. 



Length, 37 inches ; wing, 14| ; tail, 10 ; bill, 3|. 



This, which is the only species inhabiting the Australian continent, is found in New South "Wales, Victoria, and Queensland, 

 frequenting tidal and fresh water rivers running into the sea. It has also been met with on the Victoria River on the northern coast. It is 

 of very common occurrence on the Brisbane E-iver, where it may generally be seen perched upon a bough by the water side, intently watching 

 for its fishy prey. On being disturbed it assumes various curious attitudes, its long snake-like neck being moved about in every direction ; 

 when fairly driven off it takes a short flight at a small distance above the surface of the water, and alights again without delay. Sometimes 

 it will dive and swim about, its head and neck only being visible, at which time it is very difficult to shoot. The late Mr. Elsey, surgeon to 

 Grregory's expedition into the interior, says, " During February and March it was incubating. It chooses large trees that hang over the 

 water, above or through the mai^groves, and in them a number of them build a colony of large coarse flatfish nests of dead sticks and twigs, 

 which seem, from the quantity of dirt about them, and their stained appearance, to be used year after year. Each season they place in the 

 centre a few fresh green leaves, and on these lay three or four white eggs with a very opaque but brittle shell, the lining membrane of which 

 is of a blue grey color ; they are rather smaller than hens' eggs. We have enjoyed many meals off these eggs ; sometimes getting from forty 

 to fifty in a single tree. Both birds sit." Its time of incubation in the neighbourhood of Brisbane is about December and January. The 

 edges of the upper mandible are furnished with small sharp serrations, enabling it to retain its slippery prey with great ease. Complaints 

 have lately been made that the Salmon, introduced at so great an expense in Victoria, have suffered considerably from the depredations of 

 this bird, s])ecimens having been killed with the crop literally stuffed with the young fry. 



