The Australian Bittern, also our one representative of a cosmopolitan genus, skulks in a bed of reeds. Hence it is seldom seen. Its loud, dismal, booming note probably assisted in the formation of the Bunyip legends of the blacks. I saw more Bitterns in a recent trip down the Brisbane than I ever saw before. At breeding time these birds assemble in very large companies, and their nesting-places are called heronries or rookeries. The chief rookeries here are in the Riverina, where the great annual overflow of that fine river, the Murray, converts the country into a great series of lakes and swamps. Here water animals live in large numbers, and thousands of birds take advantage of this abundant food supply to nest there in the enormous redgums. Each bird is the close relative of a similar bird in Europe, so that what is read concerning Herons and Egrets there, applies equally to our members of this widely-distributed family. Eating grasshoppers and other insects in great numbers, they are friends of the farmer and grazier. Destroying yabbies and other burrowing water animals, they are valuable allies of the irrigationist, and it is decidedly bad policy to shoot one. ==== [Page 53] ORDER XII.--ARDEIFORMES. F. 50. IBIDIDAE (3), IBISES, 27 sp.--4(2)A., 6(2)O., 3(0)P., 10(8)E., 4(0)Nc., 11(7)Nl. 1 5 =112 Australian White Ibis= (Black-necked), Sickle-Bill, _Ibis molucca_, Mol., N.G., A. =vt. Sacred Ibis of Egypt. Nom. flocks, r. _lagoons_ 30 White; head, upper-neck bare black; back of head and neck barred rose-pink; black bill arched; f., smaller. Insects. 1 1 =113 Straw-necked Ibis=, Dryweather (Letter) Bird, Farmer's Friend, _Carphibis spinicollis_, A. T. Nom. flocks, c. _grassy_ 28 "This beautiful ibis;" head, fore-neck naked black; black bill arched; pointed, straw-colored plumes on neck; breast, upper greenish-purple barred black; abdomen, flanks, tail white; f., smaller. Insects. 1 3 =114 Glossy Ibis=, Black Curlew (e), _Plegadis falcinellus_, A., T., N.Z., almost cos. exc. S. Am., Arctic, and Pac. Is. [~114 _Egatheus falcinellus._] Nom. flocks, v.r. _swampy_ 25 Head, neck, breast, back, under rich reddish-chestnut; lower-back, tail dark bronze-green; winter; head, neck streaked white; f., sim. Insects, worms. F. 51. PLATALEIDAE (2), SPOONBILLS, 6 sp.--2(2)A., 2(0)O., 2(0)P., 2(1)E., 1(0)Nc., 1(0)Nl. 1 4 =115 Black-billed Spoonbill= (Royal), _Platalea regia_, A., N.Z. Nom. r. _marshy_ 29 White; bill, legs, feet black; f., sim. Shellfish, frogs. [Page 55] [Illustration: [128] [129] [131] [133] [134] [135] [136] [137] [139]] =128= Cape Barren Goose =129= Maned Goose =131= Plumed Whistling Duck =133= Black Duck =134= Australian Teal =135= Gray Teal =136= Australian Shoveller =137= Pink-eared Duck =139= White-eyed Duck [Page 57]