BLUE EEEF-HERON. 
Captain S. A. White says : “I had always grave doubts about the Blue 
and White Reef Herons being the same species, and since my visit to the 
Capricorn Group, where they were nesting in great numbers, I feel almost 
sure they are distinct, for I flushed the blue variety from large young 
which were of a decidedly dark colour ; while all the nests from which 
white birds were flushed contained white young. I also noticed a nest of 
the White Bird in a bush made of sticks and placed about 30 inches off 
the ground ; this was the only nest on the island not placed on the ground. 
“ Later a rookery was discovered of both White and Blue birds, the 
nests were all placed on the ground, under a dense mass of undergrowth of 
creepers, etc. Some nests were within a yard or two of high-water mark, 
while others were 100 yards away. The nests, which were a rude collec- 
^ tion of sticks, were placed close to one another, mostly 20 to 30 yards 
apart. The clutches were from two to three. The young birds invariably 
left the nest on the least sound and hid in the undergrowth. The adults 
frequented the sandy beech or perched on the dead trees ; when the tide 
was out they were plentiful on the reef in search of food, which seemed to 
consist of crabs, etc. The bills of some birds were quite worn down from 
probing in the coral. When procuring their food their call is a harsh one 
like others of the family. When they leave the nest they run with great 
rapidity, dodging in and out among the bushes and under the undergrowth 
till they reach the beach where they take flight.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby tells me he found a nest with five eggs in it on an 
isolated islet in St. Georges River, North Kangaroo Island, in October, 
1905 ; the nest was placed on the ledge of a precipitous rock about 40 feet 
from sea level. 
Mr. J. W. Mellor says he only noticed dark birds breeding on a rocky 
islet off the north of Kangaroo Island. And on the Capricorn Group white 
birds breed only with white, and blue ones only with blue ; also that the 
young were always the same colour as the parents. They are always on the 
move when searching for food, and wade knee deep while doing so. 
Mr. Tom Carter sends me the following : “ The black’s name is 
Kooroodoo, a common species about the North-West Cape, white specimens 
living and breeding with the grey ones, but not so numerous in numbers. 
At a certain part of the vast cliffs at the Yardie Creek, where ledges of 
rock overhang the tidal waters, there was always a colony of these birds 
breeding, and I frequently climbed down to examine the nests. A few 
pairs usually made their nests on the tops of low bushes (called by the 
blacks Toondurrarea) growing on Fraser Island near Point Cloates. On 
October 25, 1902, I examined a nest there which contained two white 
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