262 f'HARADBIID,«. 



horseman or vehicle can approach within a few yards. On the 17th October, 1886, I found two 

 nests at the extreme end of Circular Head Peninsula. They were mere depressions in the seaweed 

 which covers the shingle at high water mark, and each contained two eggs. On the 19th 

 October I brought home seven eggs from the Seven-mile Beach, and left others on the sand, 

 and might have found two dozen or more if I had cared. Some were quite fresh, others well 

 sat upon. I took several sets during the following November and December. There is great 

 variety in the eggs. On the 6th November, 1890, near the mouth of Duck River, I found three 

 fresh eggs, three hard set eggs, and three well grown chicks. The parents were very alarmed, 

 not particularly bold when we examined their nests, but in every case when they had eggs 

 merely stood far off, silent, on the sand at low water mark." 



The nest is usually a shallow depression, about six inches in diameter, scratched in the sand, 

 shingle, broken coral or shells, seaweed, or debris above high water mark. This bird was found 

 breeding freely on King Island, Bass Strait, by Mr. Joseph Gabriel, Mr. G. A. Keartland and 

 other members of the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria, in November, 1887. Again in November, 

 1893, during another excursion by members of the same Club, it was found breeding on the 

 islands of the Furneaux Group, Bass Strait, and Plate A. 18 is reproduced from a photograph 

 taken by the late Mr. H. P. C. Ashworth of a nest and set of three eggs found on Green Island. 



The eggs are usually two, occasionally three in number for a sitting, oval, swollen oval, or 

 elongate-oval in form, the shell being comparatively close-grained and slightly lustrous. Typically 

 they are of a pale brownish-white, or light yellowish-stone colour, over which is fairly evenly 

 distributed irregular-shaped spots, blotches, and short streaks of blackish-brown, with which are 

 intermingled a few of various shades of umber-brown, and underlying markings of inky-grey ; 

 on others the markings chiefly consist of ill-shapen figures, short wavy streaks and occasionally 

 smears, and on a few specimens they predominate on the thicker end. Some specimens taken 

 by Mr. E. D. Atkinson on South Down Island, have large confluent longitudinal patches formed 

 of broad irregular streaks of blackish-brown, umber-brown, and underlying markings of dull 

 inky-grey. A set of two in the .\ustralian Museum Collection, taken by the late Mr. J. A. 

 Thorpe on Fraser Island, Wide Bay, Queensland, measure: — Length (A) 2'25 x i-57 inches; 

 (B) 2-27 X 1-55 inches. Another set of three taken by Mr. John Ramsay, on the 28th August, 

 1882, at Cape Upstart, Queensland, measures: — Length (A) 2-25 x i-54 inches; (B) 2-27 x 

 i'55 inches; (C) 2-24 x i'55 inches. A set of two taken by Dr. Lonsdale Holden, on the 17th 

 October, at Circular Mead, on the north-west coast of Tasmania, measures: — Length (A) 2-2 x 

 r57 inches; (B) 2-21 x i'62 inches. An unusually elongated set taken by Mr. E. D.Atkinson, 

 on the 23rd November, 1890, on South Down Island, on the north-west coast of Tasmania, 

 measures: — Length (A) 2"57 x i'52 inches; (B) 2-62 x I-54 inches. 



In North-western Australia Mr. Tom Carter found eggs of the White-breasted Oyster- 

 Catcher, on various dates between the 5th July and the 17th September. In Queensland Mr. 

 John Ramsay took a set of three on the 28th August. On the islands of Bass Strait and 

 Tasmania October and the three following months constitute the usual breeding season, eggs 

 being more often found in October and November. 



Haematopus unicolor. 



SOOTY OYSTER-CATCHEK. 



Hinnatupas iinicolor, Wagler, Isis, 1832, p. 1230; Sharpe, (!at. Ikls. Brit. Mas., Vol. XXIV., 

 p. 118 (1896); id., Hand-1. Bds., Vol. I., p. 147 (1899). 



llii inaUipiit; fuliyhiosus, Gould, Bds. Austr., fol. Vol. VI., pi. 8 (1848) ; id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., 

 Vol. II., p. 217 (1865). 



