256 PARKID^. 



"The trim little fawn-coloured bodies of these birds assimilate wonderfully with the red 

 sand of the plains, on which they usually get their living, and they are not easily detected 

 until some movement betrays their presence; on being approached they run, pressed they 

 rise easily on their long Swallow-like wings and tiap away with a side to side llight, to 

 again alight at no great distance and resume their wanderings on foot in search of young 

 grasshoppers and other insects. In November and December, 1910, they nested quite close 

 to the outskirts of Broken Hill ; in one instance a pair of birds concealed their young ones in a 

 disused rabbit burrow." 



Dr. A. M. Morgan wrote as follows from South Australia : — " Stiltia isahcUa came down to 

 the Adelaide plains in the summer of 1884 in great numbers, and was said to have bred at 

 Goodwood, about a mile south of the city; I saw them as far north as Mintaro. They preferred 

 to keep out in the open, fallow fields being especially favoured." 



The eggs are usually two in number for a sitting, thick oval in form, or an oval much rounded 

 at the smaller end, the shell in some specimens being dull and in others more or less lustrous. 

 They \aiy in ground colour from a light cream to a pale sandy-brown, over which is distributed 

 short wavy streaks and irregular-shaped freckles, spots and small blotches of brownish-black, with 

 which are intermingled smaller underlying markings of dull bluish or inky-grey ; on some 

 specimens the markings are of a shade of brown, and may consist almost entirely of scratches 

 and streaks; on others the markings are blurred and indistinct, or partially overlie one another, 

 while yet again specimens are found with very distinct, small irregular-shaped black spots or 

 blotches and devoid of lines. As a rule the markings are fairly evenly distributed over the shell, 

 but occasionally they predominate at one end more than the other. A set of two in the Australian 

 Museum Collection, taken by the late Mr. K. H. Bennett near Mossgiel, South-western New 

 South Wales, measures : — Length (A) 1-3 x 0-95 inches; (B) 1-28 x 0-93 inches. A set of 

 two taken by Mr. W. A. Mackay on One Tree Plain, near Deniliquin, measures: — Length (.-\) 

 1-15 X 0-88 inches ; (B) 1-21 x 0-95 inches. Three eggs taken by the late Mr. W. Liscombe 

 near Wilcannia, in October, 1883, measure : — Length (A) r25 x 0-93 inches; (B) 1-27 x 0-95 

 inches; (C) i'28 x 0-95 inches. 



In New South Wales September and the four following months constitute the usual breeding 

 season, but the late Mr. A. S. Macgillivray took eggs in the Cloncurry District, Northern 

 Queensland, in January, and the breeding period usually continues through the wet season, 

 which is in the early part of the year. 



Family PARRID^. 

 Hydralector g-allinaceus. 



COMB-OKES'l'Kli I'ABKA. 



Parra ,iaU.inace.a, Temni., PI. Col, Tom. V., pi. 464; Gould, Bds. Au.str., fol. Vol. VI., pi. 7."i (1848); 



id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. IT., p. 330(1805), 

 lludfabctor gaUlniiCPii'S, Sliarpe, Cat. Ikls. Brit. j\lus.. Vol. XXI V^., p. 79(1.'^1)G); id., Hand-1. Bds., 

 Vol. I., p. 1G8 (1899). 

 Auui/r M.\LK. — Cruivii (if till' III ail, luijie, rrnlrr of iLiud in ck, inaiilh', mid hsnfv iippi'r miiig- 

 coverlti, upper lail-cuverts and lad-fi^athers black, bases of tha /alter, e.viwpl the ceiitral pair, mhite ; 

 back, sca/iiUars, in.ni'rmo.H arcoiidariei, median and (jreater upper iniag-corerts broit~i/d)ruivn : upper 

 tail-corerls bruiruis/i-h/ack unirqined irilli black : /iriiiiari/-ci>ri'rts, primarii'X and outer secondaries 



