March, 1935. 
The Queensland Naturalist 
65 
strip down the neck. The long crest feathers are a “court- 
ship decoration/’ This is the royal spoon-bill ( Platalea 
regia), I have also seen one or two yellow spoon-bills 
this month (P. flamfus). The other bird on a lower 
limb was a white egret ( egretta alba) ; it was pure white, 
with dark legs, and a longer neck, and a pointed yellow 
bill. As I gazed, both herons flew away to the uppermost 
waterhole, where they perched on different limbs of a 
snag near the side of it. A lower limb was already occu- 
pied by a pelican, who has been fishing in these waters for 
a day or two. He went to seek fresh grounds in about a 
quarter of an hour, but the other two stayed — to my 
surprise. One flew on to the same limb as the other, and 
after a few minutes, both flew down and waded close to 
gether until I left the scene. There seems to be a free- 
masonry between different species of these wading birds. 
Every morning, on the hole just below our garden, last 
month (September) Egretta alba (of the same species, 
but I know not if it were the same bird as the white egret 
already mentioned) fished in company with a tall white- 
necked heron ( Notophoyx pacaifica ) . This one has black 
markings on his neck-front, beautiful shiny greenish 
blue-grey plumage, sometimes even a reddish tinge ap- 
pears, and when it flies two white spots are visible, one 
on each wing. Sometimes these two were joined by a 
slender young white-fronted heron (A. novae hollandiae) 
often called a “blue crane,” this bird has a white face 
and throat, grey upper plumage, and its grey under- 
plumage is tinged rufous. 
On a tall tree over Bell Lagoon, some miles distant, 
I caught sight of what I believe to have been a Nankeen 
night-heron recently. This is a nocturnal species; it has 
a black crown and nape, with long white plumes from 
the latter, the upper is rich chestnut, the neck and chest 
a reddish-chestnut, and it has a white abdomen. It was 
dusk, and my glasses showed it more as a puce in the 
coloured parts, but from the general shape and appearance, 
I believe it was the night-heron. Two little dab-chicks 
played, and dived about the lagoon weeds. Pallid cuckoos 
are to be heard about, and rarely one sees them in leafy 
trees quite close, so that I am wondering which bird's 
nest they have designs upon. 
Some miles away in forest country lately, an owl was 
seen eating a scrub-turkey in a high tree fork. The 
owl was the smaller bird of the two — of course, it may 
have killed the turkey at night, and the latter may have 
fallen into the tree fork. Bushmen say that they some 
