Sio NESTS AND EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



Nest. — Composed of di-y grass and other herbage, concealed amongst 

 coarse vegetation in low-lying or marshy land (Butler). 



Egys. — Clutch, four ; pyriform in shape ; texture of shell somewhat 

 coarse ; siu'face slightly glossy ; coloui-, light-olive, blotched in some 

 examples obscurely with olive of different shades. Dimensions in inches 

 of a set: (1) 2-17 x 1-5, (2) 2-1 x 1-54, (3) 2-09 x 1-52. 



Ohservatiuns. — Tliis is the rarer of the two species of Godwits that 

 visit Australia, where it has been noted in the Northern Territoiy, 

 Queensland. New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia. In size 

 or total length it is fifteen inches, or about the dimensions of the 

 preceding species. Head and upper surface are greyish-brown, with a 

 small streak of black down the centre of each feather ; wings ban-ed with 

 white ; imderneath parts white, except the chest, which is inclined to be 

 mottled with grey. The slender legs are greenish gi"ey. with a long bill 

 the same coloiu". Of com'se, in common with the other Godwit, its 

 northern or breeding plumage would be much browner in colour. This 

 black-tailed variety, or, as Mr. Seebohm calls it, the Siberian Black-tailed 

 Godwit, breeds in the Altai Mountains^ the basin of Lake Baikal, and 

 throughout the valley of the Amoor, and, on migi-ation south, follows 

 the coast lines for the most part. 



However, in the " Catalogue " of the birds of the British Museum, 

 the eastern and western races of the Black-tailed Godwits are merged into 

 one under the old familiar name Liiiwaa linioaa. 



Dr. Taczanowski, writing to Mr. Dresser respecting the Black-tailed 

 Godwit on the Vistula, says : " Usually they begin breeding early in May, 

 and about the middle of June young may be found fully fledged. They 

 generally breed in societies, in tolerably damp places covered with high 

 thin herbage, where there are tussocks or small diy places ; but also in 

 fields (in scattered pairs or small colonies) and in small marshes covered 

 with grass and bushes. On the top of a tvissock or a dry place they make 

 a depression about three inches deep, and line it carefully and neatly 

 with diy gi'ass, depositing foiU' eggs, which both male and female sit 

 on. |If a human being approach their nesting colony, they meet him 

 when some distance from it, uttering loud cries aad retm-niug agaui and 

 again in larger numbers as he comes nearer to their nests. Wiien he is 

 amongst the nests all the birds fly ovoi-head, uttering a continued lamen- 

 tation. If the intruder remains there any time, they become tamer, 

 and a few return to their eggs, especially if the latter are hard-set." 



623. — ToTANUS STAGNATiLis, Bechslcin. — (530) 

 LITTLE GREENSHANK. 



higurc. — Gould : Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vi., pi. 37. 



Reference. — Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., vol. xxiv., p. 422. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs. — Thienemann : Abbild. Vogeleiern, 

 pi. 64 ( ): Legge: Birds of Ceylon, p. 847 (1880): also 



others. 



Geogra/iliiai/ DislriliiitKin. — South Queensland and New South 

 Wales; also New Guinea, Malayan Archipelago, Africa ami India, 



