<*;GiALrii.s. 279 



The eggs are extremely variable in colour and markings, usually two rarely three in number 

 for a sitting, varying from short oval to elongate oval and pyri form in shape, the shell being 

 close-grained, smooth and slightly lustrous. The ground colour varies from alight yellowish-stone 

 to a a pale brown and yellowish-brown, with occasionally a faint greenish tinge, over which is 

 distributed irregular-shaped freckles, spots, small blotches and short streaks of black or blackish- 

 brown, with similar but fewer faint underlying markings of ashy-grey. As a rule the markinf's 

 are fairly evenly distributed over the shell, on others they are larger and predominate on the 

 thicker end of the shell, where they not infrequently form a cap or zone. A set of two in the 

 Australian Museum Collection, taken in Albert 1 'ark, near Melbourne, Victoria, measures:— 

 Length (A) 1-22 x 0-9 inches; (B) 1-22 x 0-87 inches. A set of two taken at Middle Park 

 measure :— Length (A) i-i6 x 0-91 inches; (B) 1-15 x 0-89 inches. A set of two I found at 

 Gerringong, on the loth October, 18S9, in thelllawarra District, New South Wales, measures:— 

 Length (A) 1-17 x 0-91 inches; (B) i-i8 x 0-92 inches. An unusually elongated set measures :— 

 Length (A) 1-3 x 0-85 inches; (B) 1-31 x o-86 inches. 



Voung birds with remains of down on the tail have the feathers of the mantle and back 

 brown, with a submarginal liordering of dark brown edged with buffy-brown ; feathers on the 

 rump pale buff, with black bases and tips; upper wing-coverts ashy-brown broadly margined 

 with cinnamon-buff; centre of crown like the back ; base of forehead buffy-white ; remainder of 

 head and ear-coverts buff; chin, cheeks, sides of neck and all the under surface white. Wing 

 2-4 inches. In a further progress towards maturity the young female still exhibits the mottled 

 upper parts, but is far less conspicuously marked; there is abroad band of white across the 

 forehead, and the streak between the bill and the eye, and the sides of the head and neck, are 

 pale cmnamon-nifous. The wing-measurement, 4 inches, almost equals that of the adult. 



In Eastern Australia and Tasmania August until the end of March constitutes the usual 

 breeding season, but nests with eggs are more common in November, December and January. 

 In South Australia Dr. A. Chenery obtained eggs in April, and in North-western Australia Mr. 

 Tom Carter found this species breeding in May. 



-^gialitis melanops. 



BLACK-FRONTED DOTTEREL. 



Charadrius inelanop.-i, Vieill., Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., Tom. XXVII., p. 139 (1818). 



lliaticula liiijrifrons, Gould, fids. Austr., fol. Vol. VI., pi. 20 (1848). 



^Egialiles niyrifrom, Gould, Handbk. Hds. Austr., Vol. II., p. 232 (1865). 



.Eyiahtis mehmops, Sliarpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., Vol. XXIV., p. 300 (1896;; id., Hand-1. Bds., 

 Vol. I., p. 15.5 (1899). 



Arjuiyr male. — General colour above brown, with darker brown centres to the feathers ; lesser 

 upper wiug-cocerts darker than the back, with blackish shaft streaks ; the median and greater coverts 

 pale brown with dark brown shaft streaks, in some specimens largely margined with ii-hite, particularly 

 on the inner web ; scapulars dark chestnut ; primaries black ; secondaries white, the outer ones with 

 an oblique dark brotvn marking across the tip, the long innermost secondaries dark brown edged with 

 pale brown ; upper tail-coverts rust-red, some of the shorter ones with a dull blackish-grey central 

 strfak ; central tail-feathers brown, blackisli-brown near the tip, which is narrowly edged with tvhite, 

 the outermost feather white, the penultimate feather white, with a blackish-brown bar across the inner 

 web near the tip, tlie next on either side with tlie blackish-broivn bar across both webs, and the greater 

 portion of the Jeather towards t/ie base washed with brown, the white decreasing and the broivn and 



