EAST AUSTRALIAN BITTERN. 
soles yellow ; bill : lower mandible yellowish-green, upper dark brown ; face yellowish- 
green. Total length 700 mm. ; culmen 69, wing 339, tail 150, tarsus 102. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male, but more tawny-buff on the sides of the face, 
fore-neck, and under-parts. Total length 650 mm. ; culmen 69, wing 325, tail 
115, tarsus 102. 
Immature. Head darker and more inclining to black, the feathers of back darker with 
wider sandy-buff margins, the markings on the quills brighter, the colours of the 
under-parts richer, and the axiUaries not quite so distinctly barred. 
Nest. Built among reeds and composed of aquatic herbage, and measures about twelve 
inches across. 
Eggs. Clutch, from four to five ; uniform dull greenish-brown ; axis 50-53 mm., 
diameter 35-39.5. 
Breeding-season. August to October (White, South Austraha) ; November to January 
(Campbell). 
4 
Captain S. A. White says : “ These birds were to be met with in almost 
every reedy swamp in this state at one time, and were quite numerous 
within five miles of Adelaide in the swamps and on the reedy banks of 
the River Torrens not so many years ago, but the advance of civilization 
has driven them to more remote parts. The deep booming note of this 
bird can be heard at a great distance ; it is a most wonderful call for a bird 
to make. I am sure that this weird booming noise plays a very important 
part in connection with the fabulous animal of the aborigines, for the 
Bittern haunts the dark deep holes of the swamps overhung by thick 
flags and reeds, and it is in such localities that the natives teU you that 
the ‘ Bunyip ’ is to be found. This bird lives on frogs, tadpoles, fish, mice, 
etc. I often saw them sitting on the bare muddy banks of a swamp quite 
motionless with their biUs turned up to the sky, when I have mistaken 
them for a stump or piece of driftwood. They nest in the thick flags, 
and the nest is composed of bent flags and reeds just above the water, 
and generally contains four or five eggs of a dark olive brown. Nesting 
time in South Australia, August to October. 
“Now they are not plentiful and are seen sometimes in the early 
mornings and late evenings, in the clump of reeds. They do not seem to 
caU during February and March. The eggs resemble the dry flags very 
much. They boom day and night.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby says it is common on the rushy margins of 
biUabongs on the Murray River, in South Australia, where it is locally 
known as the “ Murray Bull,” owing to its booming note resembling the 
caU of that beast. 
Mr. J. W. Mellor reports : “ When standing motionless, with its neck 
stuck straight up and the bill pointing into the air, it lets forth its 
doleful ‘ bnom.’ It makes its nest among the rushes and reeds ; these 
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