YELLOW-NECKED MANGROVE-BITTERN. 
“ The nesting site is invariably in the vicinity of water, the nests and 
eggs being usually placed on a horizontal limb overhanging a running 
stream.”* 
“ This bird disperses itself over a far wider range of country and seems 
to have more of a nocturnal habit than Butorides stagnatilis. It is not 
unusual to flush it from amongst reeds by the side of water-holes or swamps. 
A nest I saw the birds commencing to build contained the full complement 
of four eggs within ten days. It was a very wet, dark afternoon when 1 
found it, and both birds were carrying sticks as fast as they could, one after 
another. Upon my approach some days after, the bird which was sitting 
on the eggs hopped away from the nest and assumed a straight, horizontal 
position: it straightened itself out full length, as straight as any walking- 
stick, with its bill pointing straight up and its feathers pressed in close to 
the sides of its body. I knew the bird was there, for I had not taken 
my eyes from the spot ; even then I was some seconds before I located 
it ... As soon as these birds are robbed they start to build again . . . 
They are fond of building in a willow-tree hanging over the water. During 
the dry season of September, October and November, 1895, a large number 
disappeared at breeding-time, but came back again after the end of the 
year . . . After being robbed a time or two, they build further back from 
the water, which makes it harder to find them . . . On 2nd March, 1895, 
I found a nest . . . containing three half-grown young ones.”t 
The bird figured and described is a male, collected on the Richmond 
River in November, 1888. 
i\ 
* Elvery, Austr. Mus. Sp. Cat., no, 1, Vol. IV., p. 43, 1913. 
t Savidge, ib., p. 44, 
481 
