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coast, are equally tenanted by it ; consequently it is one of the commonest species of the genus 

 in all the countries above mentioned, and may frequently be seen walking knee-deep in the water 

 of the salt marshes in search of food, which consists of crabs, fish, and marine insects. Its flight 

 is heavy and flapping, like that of the other Herons ; but it runs more quickly over the ground, 

 and is continually moving about when searching for food, and never stands motionless in the 

 water as the true Herons do : these active habits are, in fact, necessary to enable it to capture 

 insects and crabs, upon which it mainly subsists. 



"Some nests," continues this naturalist, "I observed in the month of October 1838, on the 

 banks of the Derwent, were placed on the tops of the smaller gum-trees ; and most of them 

 contained newly hatched birds. Mr. Kermode informed me that it annually breeds in the 

 neighbourhood of his estate, near the centre of Tasmania. The nest is of a moderate size, and is 

 composed of sticks and leaves. The eggs are four in number, of a pale bluish green, one inch 

 and seven eighths long by one inch and a quarter broad." 



A pair of these birds which I obtained in the Porirua Harbour, near Wellington, in the 

 month of April, had their stomachs filled with shrimps. 



