■j-jCi NESTS AXV EGGS OE AUSTRALIAN BIEPS. 



It may be deemed a rare bird, and is particularly' an inhabitant of 

 the red plains and sandhills of the interior provinces of the Continent. 

 In the vicinity of Adelaide they appeared suddenly one year ; and on the 

 plains of Riverina. they were tolerably plentiful dimng the season 1896. 



Mr. Stafford C. Cvurie kindly sent for my collection a bird and a 

 pair of eggs, collected by him at Puckawidgee, near Denihciuiu, 14th 

 November. They were an exceedingly light coloured pair. A second 

 nest was found by him on the 21st. I also received from 

 Mr. Herbert Brown, Kildonan, a beautiful pair of eggs, found by him 

 the following month on the plains of Urana. Mr. Brown writes : 

 " When the Pratincole alights on the gi'oiuid after flying, it raises and 

 lowers its body after the manner of larks, and has a liabit of bobbing 

 its head up and clown like a Sandpiper or Plover. It lays its eggs on 

 the gi'ound, merely scraping a slight hollow. A good mother-bird uses 

 many devices to attract attention to herself to withdraw you from the 

 nest." 



Tlie specimens I had previously were odd examples from the Mitchell 

 district. Central Queensland, and were found by a brother of oiu* 

 Tasmanian oologist, Mr. Geo. K. Hinsby. The specimens I described 

 in 1883, which were from Mr. H. H. Peck's collection, were taken in 

 the Darling district, New South Wales. However, Dr. Ramsay first 

 described the species the previous year from Mr. E. G. Vickery's 

 collection, who procured them near Wilcannia, in September, 1880. 



The breeding months, so far as we possess knowledge at present, 

 appear to be from September to Januai-y. Several pairs of eggs were 

 found by Mr. S. W. Jackson in October (1898), on the hard clay on the 

 edge of a swamp near South Grafton, New South Wales — a- most unusual 

 locality. 



In his " Notes on the Habits, kc, of Birds Breeding in the Interior 

 of New South Wales,"* Mr. K. H. Bennett states concerning the 

 Pratincaleithat : " This somewhat singulnr bird is one of the few migratory 

 species that visit this part of the colony and remain during the intense 

 heat of summer. As a rule it arrives towards the end of September and 

 departs about the end of February. During that interval it breeds ; 

 and the places for this pm^pose, and, in fact, its habitat during its stay, 

 are the bare patches of ground, entirely destitute of vegetation, so 

 frequent on tlie plains here. Some of the.se bare patches are of con- 

 siderable extent, and the surface of the ground is broken up into coimtless 

 small pieces, the size of a pea to that of a walnut, giving the appearance 

 of having been chipped over with a hoe. This is partly due to the nature 

 of the soil and to the intense heat and dryness of the climate, which 

 cause the surface to crack in all directions and become quite loose. It 

 is on these loose patches that the Pratincole deposits its eggs, two in 

 number. It makes no nest, but simply lays its eggs on the bare surface 

 of the loose broken srouiid ; and so much do they assimilate in fonn and 

 colour- to the suiTounding lumps of earth, that imless the bird is seen 

 to move ofl them a person might walk on them and not observe them ; 

 and on several occasions I have taken my eyes off tlie spot for a few 



• P L.S . N.S. Wales, vnt x , p K.H (1885 . 



