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229 



Irides yellow; loral skin greenish yellow; bill dark yellow, shaded with brown on the ridge and sides, 

 horn-coloured at the tip ; tarsi and toes greenish yellow^ the claws brown. Length 25 inches ; extent 

 of wings 40; wing, from flexure, 11-5; tail 4; bill, along the ridge, 3-5, along the edge of lower 

 mandible 4'25 ; bare tibia 1*5 ; tarsus 3 ; middle toe and claw 2*75 ; hind toe and claw 1*75, 



Nestling, Covered with slate-coloured down. 



Remarks. The history of this species has been worked out in an exhaustive manner by Drs. Finsch and 

 Hartlaub, to whose labours I am in a great measure indebted for the very complete synonymy at the 

 head of this article. I am unable, however, to follow these authors in considering Mr. Gr. R. Gray's 

 Ardea greyi (Cat. Brit. Mus. Grall(B, p, 80) the same species in the condition of an albino. Mr. Gould 

 once entertained that opinion, but was induced to alter it; and in his 'Handbook' (p. 309) he quotes 

 Macgillivray's observations to the following effect :— '*^From the circumstance of my having always found 

 this and the dark-coloured species in company I considered them as the same bird in different states of 

 plumage, their size and proportions being so similar, and was surprised that individuals exhibiting a 

 change from blue to white, or vice versa, never occurred. At length, while on Dugong Island, I was 

 convinced they were specifically distinct by seeing that the half-grown young from the nest had assumed 

 the distinctive colour of the parents. This was first pointed out to me by Dr. Muirhead, R.N., whose 

 attention I had previously drawn to the subject. The habits of both species are similar; and they 

 procure their food in the same manner, at low water on the coral-reefs surrounding the low islands they 

 frequent. The nest and eggs are precisely similar ; but the young of this bird is white from the nest.'' 

 Although this white form is ^' abundantly dispersed over the northern and eastern coasts of Australia 

 wherever low islands and reefs of coral running parallel to these coasts occur," it has never yet been 

 met with in New Zealand, which is a further reason for our refusing to consider it an albino of the 

 common species. 



The Blue Heron is not confined to New Zealand, but is found along the whole of the Australian 

 coasts and throughout the Polynesian archipelago ; its range extends also to India and Japan, 

 the differences in examples from those countries being too trifling to warrant a specific separation. 

 Macgillivray states that it " inhabits the islands of the north-east coast of Australia and 

 Torres Strait, and is abundantly distributed from the Capricorn group in lat. 23° 30' S., as far 

 north as Darnley Island in lat. 9° 35' S. It procures its food at low water on the coral-reef 

 surrounding the low wooded islands it loves to frequent. Although generally a wary bird, even 

 when little disturbed by man, yet on one occasion on Heron Island I knocked down several with 

 a stick. The nest is usually placed on a tree ; but on those islands where there are none, such as 

 Eaine's Islet and elsewhere, it breeds among the recesses of the rocks ; where the trees are tall, 

 as at Oomaga or Keat's Island, the nests are placed near the summit ; on Dugong Island they 

 were placed on the root of a tree, on a low stump, or half-way up a low bushy tree. They are 

 shallow in form, eighteen inches in diameter, and constructed of small sticks, and lined with 

 twigs ; the eggs are two in number, and of a pale bluish white." Gilbert, who found this species 

 nesting at Port Essington, says :— " On one small rock I found at least fifty of these nests, some 

 of which were so close as nearly to touch each other. The eggs were sometimes two, and at 

 others three, in number." 



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