274 CHAKAUUUX.E. 



1910 caterpillars were abundant, and the birds nested freely all around Hroken Hill. They 

 resent any interference with their young or eggs, some individuals being much more courageous 

 than others. I ha\'e known one to stand over a nest with outstretched wings until I was 

 close enough to touch it, and then to exercise all the wiles of the Plover tribe to lure me away. 

 In lyio my wife, little boy and I were examining a nest, when the bird came within a yard of 

 us, protesting loudly with our interference with its nest. They live well in captivity, and will 

 subsist on a diet of canary seed alone ; they have also nested in an a\'iary in this town." 



From .Adelaide, South .Australia, Dr. A. M. Morgan sent me the following notes : — " Zonifcr 

 triLolor is a common bird in every part of South Australia that I have visited. They seem 

 more at home on dry plains than about swamps, and are very early breeders. I found four 

 slightly incubated eggs on the 4th July, 1S96, at I^aura and on the 12th July of the same year 

 two newly hatched young l)irds. The eggs were laid in a shallow depression on the ground, 

 apparently made by the bird, without any nest." 



From Port Augusta, South Australia, Dr. A. Chenery wrote as follows in July, 1901 ; — 

 "During a trip last .April, after rain in February, to Arcoona Station, one hundred and forty 

 miles north-west of Port Augusta, I found many of the waders breeding and sa.\v Ziviifcr tvicoJor, 

 with young in down, on the 3rd day of that month." 



Mr. C. Ernest Cowle, while resident at Illamurta, Central .Australia, wrote nie that he had 

 taken a set of eggs of Zonijcr tricolor at Deception Creek', in .April, 1900. 



Mr. Torn Carter sent me the following notes from IJroome kfill, South-western .Australia : — 

 " Zonifer tricolor was not observed in North-western Australia, but I have seen it breeding inland 

 from Perth, about Northam and York, and it is fairly common on cleared grass and agricultural 

 land about Broome Hill. On 15th September, igio, four young birds, still with the remains of 

 down on their plumage, were seen, and on ist October, 1910, a recently hatched young bird. 

 They have certainly much increased in numbers since I came to this district. At the end of 

 November, 1910, hundreds of them collected around a stock tank- for some days, apparently 

 preparing to migrate." 



Dr. L. Holden wrote as follows while resident at iJellerive, near Hobart, Tasmania : — " On 

 the 20th October, 1S95, on Droughty Point, Derwent Iviver, two Zouifcr tricolor were flying 

 noisily about me. I watched and searched for eggs, and found at length a chick in down, perhaps 

 a week old, cowering beside a tuft of long grass. The Pointer stood, otherwise I should not have 

 found it. These birds look immensely larger when on the wing than on the ground ; they run 

 short distances, stop and look about, are very watchful, and like to stand on commanding knolls. 

 \\ hen we were near the young bird the old ones were clamorous and flew towards us, otherwise 

 they always flew further away. Mr. Richardson, of Sandford, informed me that this bird breeds 

 freely in the month of June, every year, on the flat ground near the Sandford River. On the 

 23rd March, 1901, I saw a flock of about sixty Black-breasted Plover between Glenora Railway 

 Station and the banks of the Derwent River, opposite Clarendon." 



The Black-breasted Plover resorts to similar situations as the ,Spur-winged Plover for the 

 purpose of breeding. 



The eggs are usually four in number for a sitting, varying in form from oval, rather 

 swollen at the smaller end, to a decided pyriform, the shell being close-grained, dull and lustrous. 

 Typically the ground colour is a pale brown, and it may be tinged with a greenish or greyish- 

 olive, over which is uniformly distributed as a rule irregular-shaped dots, spots and small blotches 

 of various shades of brown, some of the markings, apparently nearly black, intermingled with 

 fewer underlying spots and blotches of bluish or inky-grey. On some specimens the markings 

 are larger and darker, or predominate on the thicker end. They are somewhat variable in si^e, 

 large eggs of this species being similar to small eggs of Lohivancllus lohatus, but they are easily 



