THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
gum-tree. It will also sit upon the top of the posts of a fence, and in this 
position where several occupy similar portions they appear like a line of 
soldiers with their dark uniforms, with white neck and head-dresses. They 
come about in autumn, when the early floods are due, stay the winter and 
depart. They are more often seen singly or in pairs, but on occasions 
congregate in small flocks where food is plentiful. They mix with, and live 
on the same food, as the preceding species, but are much more conspicuous 
on account of their size.” 
“ Their strange habit of standing motionless in the swamps or on trees 
near the water rendered their long white necks a marked feature of the 
locality. Their food consisted of water-beetles and small fresh-water snails.”* 
“More likely to be seen during the period of the summer rains than 
any other time [in Richmond District, North Queensland]. My only record 
of a nest, a solitary one in a smooth, white-barked gum {Eucalyptus 
rostrata) on the Flinders River, is on 16th June ; it contained three 
youngsters in the down. I never saw these Herons congregate in any way. 
Generally they are alone, two at most on a hole.”t 
The bird figured and described is an old male, collected in New South 
Wales ; the birds from the Northern Territory and North-west Australia 
are, for the -lime being, considered to be similar. 
* Keartland, Trans. Roy. Soc. South Austr., Vol. XXII., p. 188, 1898. 
t Bemey, Emu, Vol. VI., p. 115, 1907. 
444 
