.KOIALITIS 



two ef;gs. I have also on several occasions seen young tliat had evidently only recently left the 

 nest or site where hatched, for nest, properly speaking', there is none, the ejjgs being simply 

 deposited in a slight hollow in the ground, where they assimilate very much in colour to their 

 surroundings." 



Dr. W. Macgillivray wrote me as follows while resident in the Hamilton District, Victoria: — 

 " I found .-E<;uilitis ncjicctpillci nesting on the shores of Lake Linlithgow, about nine miles from 

 Hamilton, Victoria, during November. The eggs were placed in a slight depression amongst 

 a lot of limestone pebbles, just above high water mark ; the concavity was about four inches in 

 diameter, and the small pebbles lining it, of the same ground colour as the eggs, served to render 

 them almost indistinguishable. The birds used all the common devices of the family to lure one 

 away from the neighbourhood of the nest if it contained young, but did not trouble at all if eggs were 

 there." Again writing from Broken Hill, South-western New South Wales, Dr. Macgillivray 

 states : — " I hrst noted .i^'/j/zV/s nijiiapilla in this district in January, 1902, on the muddy shore 

 flats of the local reservoir, where they were in hundreds. In good seasons a few pairs breed on 

 a patch of white gravelly (juartz, about two miles on the town side of the local reservoir, where 

 the colour of the quartz is eminently protective to both the birds and their eggs. On the 31st 

 July, 1910, I came across a pair of these Dotterel with two newly hatched young; they were 

 running away, when the mother bird ran up to them and made them squat in a small patch of 

 herbage, where they remained, relying upon their colour for concealment, whilst she ran away. 

 Eggs are laid here during July and August; there is no doubt they purposely return to this 

 patch year after year to rear their young, in spite of its being so far from the nearest water, 

 because it is the only available site within a reasonable distance which affords effective protection. 

 In X'ictoria I have found these birds breeding in the debris just above the water line." 



From Melbourne, Victoria, Mr. G. A. Keartland wrote ine : — " .Ef^ialilis riipcaptlla is prob- 

 ably the most widely distributed of our small waders. I have a clutch of their eggs in my 

 cabinet taken from a nest on St. Kilda Beach, within fifty yards of Hegarty's baths, close to 

 where hundreds of people were passing daily. The bird sat on the eggs until almost stepped on. 

 These birds are plentiful all round our coast, but at some of the inland swamps they may be 

 seen in hundreds. At Lake Way, in Western .Australia, they were very numerous." 



Dr. A. 1\I. Morgan sent the following note from Adelaide, South .\ustralia :— " -^a'/hW/s 

 niJicapiUa is a common bird on all our sea coasts and swamps near the sea. I have not seen it 

 inland." 



Dr. h. Chenery wrote from Port Augusta, South Australia, in July, igoi :— " After rain 

 last February, on Arcoona Station, one hundred and forty miles north-west from here, I took 

 eggs of ^■Egialitis ruficapilla on the 25th April." 



p-rom Broome Hill, South-western .\ustralia, Mr. Tom Carter wrote as follows:—" .Jif^ialitis 

 vuficapilla is common in other localities, but was very seldom seen about Point Cloates, North- 

 western .Australia. It, however, occurred regularly in the Mangrove creeks nearer the North-west 

 Cape. .A few were breeding at a flooded salt marsh, thirty miles north of Point Cloates, in 

 May, 1900." 



F^rom notes made by Dr. Lonsdale Holden, while resident at Circular Head, on the north- 

 west coast of Tasmania, I have e.xtracted the following :—" On the 27th September, 1886, I 

 found a nest of .-Egialilis ruficapiUa containing two eggs. The nest was a slight depression 

 scratched in the sand, in a large expanse of barren sandhill and sand plain at least hfty yards 

 above high water mark. The nest was surrounded by the foot-prints of the birds, and my eye was 

 attracted by these and so led to the eggs, which lay within a few inches of one of my feet. On the 

 30th September I found two nests, each with two eggs, one set nearly fresh the other incubated, 

 70 



