ARDETTA MACRORHYNCHA, Gould.
Thick-billed Green Bittern.

Ardetta macrorhyncha, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., February 22, 1848.

 

Tue more robust bill, larger head and greater size of this species will at all times distinguish it from Ardetta
stagnatihs and A. Javanica. The only part of Australia from which it has yet been received is the east coast.
I myself observed two individuals sitting close to their flat nest on the branch of a mangrove growing on
Garden Island near the mouth of the Hunter. It inhabits the mangrove swamps, and assumes all the
habits and actions of the 4. stagnatilis, and like that species feeds upon the crabs and other crustaceans
which there abound.

Crown of the head and occipital crest black, with green reflexions ; neck, all the upper surface and wing-
coverts greenish olive; wing-coverts narrowly margined with deep rufous; primaries and tail slate-grey ;
spurious wing, secondaries, and all but the three or four external primaries with an irregular triangular-
shaped spot at the tip; down the centre of the throat a series of oblong marks of dark brown and white,
forming a conspicuous mottled stripe continued on to the breast, where it is lost in the mingled grey and
buffy brown of the abdomen ; upper mandible dark reddish brown ; basal portion of the lower one oil-green ;
tibize and hinder part of the tarsi bright yellow; remainder of the legs and feet yellowish brown.

The Plate represents the two sexes of the size of life.