200 



appearance, fishing by a stream. On opening them, however, to find out what kind of fish they 

 were catching, I found the crop of each crammed with grasshoppers and nothing else." 



The young differs from the adult in its smaller size and much paler plumage ; the blackish- 

 brown on the front and sides of the neck is entirely absent, there being in place thereof a broad 

 central irregular stripe of cinnamon-brown ; and the soft spreading plumage is of a pale-tawny 

 colour, with numerous transverse V-shaped markings of pale cinnamon-brown ; the brown 

 lanceolate markings on the breast and sides of the body are paler than in the adult, and the 

 plumage of the upper surface of the body is altogether lighter and more largely suffused with 

 tawny-yellow or buff. 



This species, formerly so abundant on the west coast of Wellington, is getting scarce, owing 

 to the draining of the swamps, as the inevitable result of systematic settlement. 



To show how varied is the bill of fare of the Bittern, Mr. S. H. Drew, the curator of the 

 Wanganui Museum, records that one, dissected by him, contained in its stomach a fully-feathered 

 Zosterops, an (introduced) Australian frog, five locusts, a large spider, two common sand-lizards, 

 and the remains of a small fish. From the stomach of another he had extracted seven mice. It 

 will be seen, therefore, that this bird is useful to the husbandman. 



Mr. Guthrie- Smith,* confirming and commenting upon my account of the manner in which 

 the Bittern stalks through the shallow water, raising its foot high at every step, as if deliberately 

 measuring the ground, suggests that the object of this is not to dim the mirror of water, and 

 thereby dull the vision of fish. This is highly probable, and the green limbs of the bird, by their 

 assimilation to the reed-stems, no doubt aids it in the pursuit of its prey. We know, from 

 analogy, that even the slightest degree of protective resemblance is of practical advantage to 

 a species in the great struggle for existence, which never for a moment ceases. It would be easy 

 to give many familiar illustrations of this. 



I have already described (vol. ii., p. 143) a nest of this species in the Canterbury Museum ; 

 but as the taking of a Bittern's nest is a somewhat unusual occurrence, I have much pleasure in 

 reproducing here Mr. P. E. Cheal's account of one containing five eggs, which he discovered in a 

 swamp at Whakahara, in the Piako district : 



On Wednesday, August 30th, when chaining along the boundary of the Takapau-Eerekau Block, and 

 about one mile and a half west of the Waitoa River and three miles east of the Piako River, my 

 chainman's son walked a long distance from the party and stumbled over the nest, very nearly falling upon 

 the Bittern, which rose and flew away. On examining the nest, I was pleased to find five eggs in it. The 

 nest was quite exposed, being situated in a small toetoe tussock not four inches above the level of the 

 swamp- water. It was composed of a few layers of dry rushes, laid across one another, without any attempt at 

 nest-making. Interspersed with the rushes was some fine down, but whether from the Bittern or from some 

 other bird I cannot say. 



A nest of this recluse species lately examined by me, at Wellington, was formed entirely of 

 dry grass, loosely packed together. 



* Trans. N. Z. Inst., xxviii., p. 375. 





(End of Yolume I.) 



