pleasure in being noticed and admired, remaining very quiet to be looked at, keeping its bright eves on the 

 spectators, however, (hiring tin' time. Although when first seen it has an nneouth appearance from the 

 large size of the mandibles in proportion to the body, yet, on closer acquaintance, its manner wins upon you, 

 and a feeling of attachment arises towards it, from its placid, tame, domesticated manner, elegance of form, 

 graceful carriage, and beautiful metallic brilliancy of plumage, more especially over the head and neck." 



In captivity, we learn, it feeds on beef, fish, and reptiles, bruising hard grisly pieces soft with the 

 point of its beak. Its meals are taken with great regularity morning and evening, and as its appetite is 

 voracious, I ! lb. of meat a day is a fair allowance. In spite of its unwieldy bill, it catches flies with great 

 agility, and can pick up small objects from the ground. It is partial to salt-water creeks and lagoons, in 

 such localities as the entrance of the Clarence and Hunter Rivers, where fish are plentiful. Being both 

 very rare and very shy birds, they choose their feeding grounds and places of rest about sand pits, sand 

 banks, and exposed morasses near the sea coast, where it is impossible to approach them without being seen. 

 The blacks can only capture it by lying concealed among the sedges and stealing upon it unawares — perhaps 

 when sleeping, as it does, upon the tarsi, as the bird takes some time to rise from that position. When 

 alarmed it flaps its powerful w ings as if for flight. The Jabiru is easily domesticated, and becomes as tame 

 as the Native Companion. It shews a total disregard of atmospheric changes, and is equally happy to stand 

 in the pelting rain, or to bear the blast of a fierce hot wind. 



Mr. J. A. Campbell claims the distinction of being the first naturalist to exhibit and describe 

 the eggs of this Stork. He says: "A pair of eggs exhibited by me, 10th October last, were 2 inches 11 lines 

 long, breadth 2 inches l£ lines to 2 lines. These, the first recorded eggs of Australia's only Stork, were 

 taken in the Clarence River District, New South Wales, about the end of August, 1887, from a huge stick 

 nest, lined with grass and other material, and situated in a large tree in the centre of a swamp. The nest 

 was fully 12 ft. in circumference, with a considerable cavity, and so enormous that in taking the eggs a 

 man-hole had to be made from underneath, through which one of the eggs (of which there were three) 

 unfortunately fell into the water and was lost. The full complement would have been probably four eggs. 

 The shape of the eggs a round oval; colour, dull white; the shell somewhat coarse, as if porous or pitted 

 with pin-points, especially at both ends." 



Head, neck, and throat, metallic-green with purple lights ; greater wing-coverts, both above and 

 beneath shoulders, lower part of back and tail, glossy metallic-green, tinged with gold; remainder of 

 plumage, pure white, except primaries, which are a light ashen-grey; bill, black; irides, dark hazel; legs, 

 pure red. 



Habitats: Derby (X.W.A.), Port Darwin and Port Essington, Gulf of Carpentaria, Cape York, 

 Rockingham Bay, Port Denison, Wide Bay District, Richmond and Clarence River Districts, New South 

 Wales, south coast of New Guinea 



