KKYTIIKOfJONYS. 



265 



-L Dc 



marijinMl >rifh J'lijlit rufuns : " hill pink-ri'd at the l>ase, lilurk nl flu- tip: thit/li, kiup, niiil for a 

 quAirti'r of ini, inch ilotrii tin' liirsns pitik-rrj, tin' ri'iiiaimler of llir tdrsiis (mil llir foi x bl uish-had 

 colour" (Goukl). 'J'otal h-iigth. 7 iitchps, unng 4'-J, tdil _?•'', bill OS, tarsus I'fj. 



Adult FEMALK. — Similar in /ihinuiy In thu male. 



Distrilmtion. — North-western Australia, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South 

 Australia, Western Australia. 



JIE inland portions of South-eastern Australia are the principal stronghold of the Red-kneed 

 )otterel, although it is widely distributed over the island-continent. Mr. E. J. Cairn 

 and the late Mr. T. H. Ijowyer-Bower obtained specimens near Derby, Mr. G. A. Keartland 

 procured examples about four miles from the junction of the Fitzroy and Margaret Rivers, and 

 Mr. Tom Carter found it breeding at Point Cloates in North-western Australia, and also 

 observed it at Broome Hill in South-western Australia. On the opposite side of the continent 



I'r. E. P. Ramsay recorded it from the Gulf 

 of Carpentaria, in Northern Oueensland, and Mr. 

 S. Robinson found it breeding on Burrenbilla 

 Station, Cunnamulla, Warrego River, in Southern 

 Oueensland. In the Australian Museum Col- 

 lection are specimens obtained by the late Mr. 

 John MacGillivray on the Clarence River, New 

 South Wales, in i'S65, also specimens collected 

 by Messrs. E. J. Cairn and Robt. Grant, in 

 December, 1888, near Bourke on the Darling 

 River, and adult specimens and eggs procured by 

 the late Mr. K. H. Bennett in the neighbourhood 

 of the Lachlan River and Mossgiel. Gould found 

 this species tolerably abundant on the flats near 

 Aberdeen, also on the Molcai and Namoi Rivers, 

 and Messrs. J. D. Cox and y\. G. Hamilton, in 

 their " List of Birds of the Mudgee District," 

 record numbers visiting that locality in April and I\Iay, during some wet seasons. In South- 

 western New South Wales Dr. W. Macgillivray notes it quite common on the swamps 

 of the Broken Hill District, where he found it breeding. In South Australia Dr. A. Chenery 

 observed this species with young in April, at Arcoona Station, one hundred and forty miles 

 north-west of Port Augusta, and in November, 1910, Dr. H. M. Morgan saw several pairs 

 at Glenelg, on the coast south of Adelaide. 



Mr. S. W. Robinson, writing from Burrenbilla Station, Cunnamulla, Southern Oueensland, 

 remarks: — "I UhmwA Eiythvogonvi ciiictits breeding in September, 1897, near the margin of the 

 water from the bore. I took altogether seven sets, and in e\ery instance the eggs were deposited 

 under bushes. I also took several sets of eggs in April, 1903, after heavy rains." 



The late Mr. K. H. Bennett, while resident at Mossgiel, New South Wales, wrote as follows 

 in 1886 : — " Erythrogonys cinctus is rather numerous in this locality during the spring and summer 

 months. It generally arrives in September and takes its departure again after breeding, about 

 the end of February, but if the season should be a good one, and the swamps near which it 

 delights to dwell contain water, it remains longer. Gould remarks that he seldom saw more 

 than two together ; here the case is different, large numbers being very frequently seen together. 

 It breeds during the month of October, and the eggs, four in number, are simply deposited in 

 some slight depression in the damp soil close to the water's edge. Sometimes they are placed in 

 the most exposed situations, at other times tliey are placed beneath the scanty shelter of the 

 stems of a Polygonum bush." 



67 



RHIJ-KNEED DOTTEREL. 



