768 



NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



lengthened or the sharper-pointed egg is the male. In the dimensions 

 given above of the six clutches of Stone Plover eggs, the No. 1 eggs 

 (which have the shai-per ends) are the longer in every instance 

 except one. It will be fiu'ther seen that this iiile applies to other 

 species as they come under oiu' notice. With reference to the longer 

 and sharper-pointed eggs, I may mention that a relative of mine 

 experimented with a setting of domestic fowls' eggs, selecting the longest 

 and most pointed examples, and all, without exception, hatched out 

 male birds. 



A Stone Plover killed by a famier had two mice in its stomach, 

 besides several scorpions. The bird was shot at night, near a dam, and 

 was taken in the darkness for a duck. The Stone Plover is evidently 

 a useful bird as a vermin destroyer. 



I shall conclude with my last reminiscence of Stone Plovers. I was 

 fishing on the MuiTay one summer night, some distance from home, when 

 my horse cleared off, so I elected to remain in the scrub all night. Stone 

 Plovers were very numerous, and I amused myself by tiying to put their 

 weird calls into the tonic sol-fa system, but failed. First one bird would 

 utter five or six prelim inaiy wails, preceding an interval of faster cries, 

 then a finale of a jumble of sounds, as if more than one bird were taking 

 part. 



593. — Orthorhamthus (Esacus) magnirostris, Vieillot. — (407 

 LONG-BILLED STONE PLOVER. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vi., pi. 5. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus.,,yol. xxiv., p. 22. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Gould : Birds of Australia (1848) , 

 also Handbook, vol. ii., p. 214 (1865) ; Hume : Nests and 

 Eggs Indian Birds (1875), also Gates' ed"., vol. iii . p. 334 (1890). 



Geographira! Dixtrihiifion . — North-west Australia. Northern Teiri- 

 tory and North Queensland ; also New Gtiinea and Malayan Archipelago. 



Nest. — The bare ground merely, or a small depression in the sand, 

 a little above high- water mark. 



Eficix. — Clutch, one, or probably two ; inrlined to oval in fonn ; 

 textvu-e coarse ; surface slightly glossy ; colon)-, stony-grey, somewhat 

 boldly blot^-hed and spla.sliod with dark-olive and dull-grev. Dimensions 

 in inches of single examples : (I) 2'59 x 1-78, (2) 2-4 x 1-8. (Plate 21.) 



Ohnervations. — ^This Stone Plover differs from the southern bird in 

 having a conspicuous white bar across the shoulder, also more white about 

 the face, with a bill drawn out to apparently an inordinate length ; 

 liencc the name Long-billed Stone Plover. It prefers the seashore and 

 oozy mudbanks, to regale itself on small crabs and other low organisms. 



