STILIIA. 



253 



An egg in Mr. Thos. P. Austin's collection, taken by hini on Temple Island, lying off the 

 Queensland coast, on the 17th November, 1907, is of a delicate stone-grey ground colour, over 

 which is evenly distributed irregular-shaped streaks, smears and blotches of blackish and dark 

 umber-brown, with which are intermingled similar shaped underlying markings of dull inky- 

 grey. Length 2-5 x rS inches. Another egg in his collection, taken by a turtle-shell collector 

 at Cape Palmerston, near Mackay, Queensland, on the 6th October, 1908, has fewer, but 

 considerably larger spots and blotches of sepia, many of them partially overlying large' dull 

 grey irregular-shaped markings. Length 2-52 x 1-52 inches. 



The figure on the opposite page is reproduced from a photograph taken by I )r. \V. Macgillivray. 



From the notes of the foregoing correspondents, October and the three following months 



appears to constitute the breeding season on the coast and adjacent islands of Northern Australia. 



Family GLAREOLID^. 

 Stiltia Isabella. 



Pi; ATI X( OLE. 

 Glarpola isahilla, Vieill., Analyse, p. G9 (ISIG). 



aiareola yrnllarin, Gould, IJd.s. Austr., fol. Vol. VL, pi. 22 (1S4S; ; i,/., Handbk. Bds. Au.str., Vol. 

 11., p. 243 (1865). 



StUtia imbdln, Sliarpe, Cat. Bds. Brit, Mus., Vol. XXfV., p. ,il (18'J6); i,l., Hand-1. Bds., Vol. 

 I., p. 170 (1899). 



Adult malk. — 6V,(^m/ colour abocp, iHchiAimj /he. forehea.l, crowu of the h-'ad, hind-iieck and 

 scapulars pale cinnamuu-hrown ; the leathers of the hirer hack and rump ashij-,,rey icilh pale 

 ciimamon-browu viaryins ; upper K-iug-cocerts and scapulars lib; the back, the outer wing-coverts, 

 the primariz-cocerts and primaries black, the conspicuously long first priumr,/ haviug a white 

 shaft Jar til ree jnirts of its length from the base ; secouilaries pale bro/vn margined with light cinnamon 

 on their outer webs : upper tail-coverts white : tail-feathers black with white bases and tips, the white 

 largely increasing towards the outermost feather on either side, which is entirely irhite ; lores blackish; 

 chin and thruat almost pure white, having only a slight wash of sam/y-buff .■ fore-neck and ' upper 

 breast sand y-bufi ; lower breast and flanks rich chestnut; abdoui.en, thighs and under tad-coverts 

 white ; under n-ing-coverls and axillaries black ; bill red, the apical half black ; legs and feet brown ; 

 iris brown. Total length in the flesh b' inches, wing S:l, tail 2-J^, bill 0, tarsus 19. 



Adult fkmalk. — Similar in plumage to the male. 



iJis/;7/w//();/.— North-western Australia. Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, 

 \'ictoria, South Australia, Central Australia. 



fN Australia the Pratincole is essentially an inhabitant of the inland and drier portions of the 

 continent, its range, according to the late Dr. R. B. Sharpe in the " Catalogue of Birds 

 in the British Museum," extending also to New Guinea, the Aru Islands, Kei Islands, and the 

 Moluccas as far as Celebes, Flores, Java and Borneo. The late Mr. T. H. Bowyer-Bower and 

 Mr. E. J. Cairn obtained specimens inland from Derby, North-western Australia; in "Novitates 

 Zoologica- " Dr. E. Hartert has recorded it from the South Alligator Kiver, in the Northern 

 Territory; in Queensland Dr. W. Macgillivray and his brother, the late Mr. A. S. Macgillivray, 

 found It breeding near Cloncurry, and there is a specimen in the .Australian Museum Collection 

 obtained at Cape York by the late Mr. S. White ; another received from Mr. .A. H. Cooper, 

 obtained near the North Kennedy River, also one from the late Mr. A. J. Ewen, procured on 

 Kensington Downs Station, in the vicinity of Longreach, Western Central Queensland. 



64 



