WHITE-NECKED HERON. 
fore-neck white tinged with buff ; the feathers on the breast white broadly 
margined with deep maroon, while on the abdomen and under tail-coverts the 
margins are dark brown ; sides of body and axillaries slate-grey ; under wing- 
coverts also dark slate-grey with a few white feathers intermixed. Bill black, 
base of lower mandible yellow ; eyes and orbits yeUow ; feet black. Total length 
775 mm. ; culmen 83, wing 413, tail 170, tarsus 135. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 
Immature male of the year. Differs from the adult chiefly in the entire absence of 
ornamental plumes both on the back and fore-neck ; the margins on the feathers 
of the under-surface grey instead of dark brown. 
Birds of the second year have the ornamental feathers on the back similar to those 
of the adult, but the feathers on the breast are like those of the immature bird 
of the first year. 
Very old birds appear to have the white shaft-streaks to the feathers narrower 
than in the younger birds. 
I find the dark feathers on the middle of the fore-neck to be a variable character. 
Fledgling, with doum still on some of the feathers. Resembles the immature male 
described above, but has more white on the wing, the head buff, and the 
feathers on the lower-neck white, with a subterminal band of dark brown. 
Nest. Roughly constructed of sticks placed high up in a tree. 
Eggs. Clutch, four ; imiform pale green ; axis 58-59 mm., diameter 39. 
Breeding-season. September to January usually, but practically all the year round. 
Mr. J. P. Rogers found these birds far from rare in the North-west of 
Australia. Many nests were located, some in the fork of a thin, horizontal 
limb, about twenty-five feet from the ground, others about forty feet up — 
all placed in coolibah trees ; the clutch was three to four. When one of the 
birds was on the nest the other was frequently perched on a limb close by. 
Captain S. A. White says : “ These birds are not numerous anywhere, 
but are scattered over the whole of South Australia. It always nests on 
the Adelaide Plains during wet winters, but never in any numbers.” 
Mr. Tom Carter records : “ Seen throughout the State of West Australia. 
It feeds at fresh-water pools, and also on the sea-beach. It is usually 
exceedingly wary and difficult to approach. On one occasion, December 
12th, 1912, I had two long shots at a pair in the flooded swamp inland 
from Point Cloates. They were unhurt and rising in the air they gradually 
ascended in great spirals until they appeared as mere specks in the sky, then 
they flew straight away eastwards. I imagined they attained that height 
in order to locate the next large sheet of water, which was about thirty miles 
to the east. They are found in the south-west as well.” 
Mr. J. A. Sandland sends me the following : “ Seen after rains, and 
sometimes previous to them. On one occasion I found a nest near Burra, 
South Australia, built in a patch of star-thistles near the ground.” 
Mr. J. W. MeUor reports : “ This fine Heron is a very conspicuous object 
as it wades about the swamps or stands erect upon the dead tops of a high 
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