NESTS A\D EGGS OF AVSTRALIAN BIRDS. 803 



616. — Cladorhynchus leucocephalus, Vicillot. — (518) 

 C. peduraliK, Du Bus. 



BANDED STILT. 



Figure. — Gould : Birds of Australia, £ol., vol. vi., pi. 26. 



Keferena. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxiv., p. 324. 



Previous Desaipiions of Eggs. — Ramsay: Proc. Linn. Soc, N.S. 

 Wales, vol. vii. (1882) ; Campbell : Southern Science Record 

 (1883), iilso Proc. Austn. Assoc, vol. v., p. 439 (1893). 



Geoyrai)hii'<i! DiKtrihutiun. — New South Wales, Victoria, South, 

 West, and Noi-th-west Australia, and Tasmania. 



Nest. — The bare ground, but sometimes there is a semblance of a 

 uesting-place lined with a few portions of dry reeds or other herbage. 



Effffs. — -Clutcli, foiu- ; in shape inclined to pyriform ; texture of shell 

 compai'atively fine ; surface slightly glossy ; coloiu', rich oUve-stone, or 

 yellowish-olive, marked with spots and heavy blotches of sepia, together 

 with a few lighter smudges of mnber, especially , on or near tlie obtuse 

 end. Dimensions of odd examples in inches : (1) 1"83 x 1-24, 

 (2) 1-7.5 X 1-23, (3) 1-71 x 1-23, (4) 1-7 x 1-24. 



Oh-iervrition-f. — The broad chestnut band on the breast at once suggests 

 the vernacular title " Banded " for tliis stilt-walker. The rest of the 

 phunage is white, excepting the wings and the centre of the abdomen, 

 which are black. The total length of the bird is foiuteen Inches, 

 including long yellowish legs, three inches, and a straight slender bill 

 nearly the same length as the legs. 



From swampy acres, full of beautiful aquatic plants, contigiious to 

 the Murray River, I have flushed, in company with other water-fowl, the 

 Banded Stilt, which can be detected amongst the whirr of wings and 

 voices of the other birds by its puppy-like barking notes. As in the days 

 of good Gilbert, I made the acquaintance of this fine Stilt on Rottnest 

 Island, Western Australia, where it is locally known as the " Rottnest 

 Snipe." There they wade gracefully in the shallows of the salt lake, 

 which is evidently a favomite feeding gi'ovmd, because the birds resort 

 thither annually. About the middle of November (the 18th was the 

 precise day the season of my visit) they arrive in companies of tens or 

 twenties in nimiber, apparently coming from the far Interior, because 

 none aie observed on the adjacent mainland, and, gradually increasing in 

 numbers till thousands may be seen upon the face of the lake. They 

 remain all summer, departing again about April. During the interval 

 between April and November no doubt, they breed in some secluded 

 part of the Interior. But occasionally, especially dimng wet seasons, 

 the Banded Stilts may be fovmd breeding in Riverina, as in the year 

 when mv vovmg friend, Mr. Lindsay Clark, enriched my collection with 

 the pgg^ of this species, which he procvired from near Booligal. on the 

 Lachlan, New South Wales, the memorable wet season of 1879. 



