"28 4 CIIAKAI)R1IN,F,. 



October, 1865, has the upper back and some of the scapulars brownish-black like the mantle. 

 One of the specimens in the Australian Museum Collection is labelled "St. Kilda Lagoon, 

 Melbourne, 1873." I first met with tliis species on the ocean beach immediately at the back of 

 I-fye, Port Phillip, Victoria, in my early collecting days. These birds were usually associated 

 in pairs, sometimes in small flocks of four or five, running along on the sand and feeding at the 

 water's edge. Although I watched them carefully for some time, failed to discover any nests, 

 and subsequent visits proved the breeding season in that district was over. In November, lyii, 

 I noted a single pair at Burton's Beach, on the ocean side of Phillip Island, Western Port Bay. 

 In New South Wales I observed it on the shores of Twofold Bay, also on the ocean beach 

 near P3den. The late Mr. George Masters obtained adult specimens farther north, at Ulladulla, 

 and in the latter part of January, igii, Mr. F. Edwards forwarded me for identification a 

 photograph of one of these birds taken at the nest, with two eggs, on the sea beach at Bega, 

 and where he informed me he had frequently found its nests and eggs. I have observed this 

 species on the shores of Gunnamatta Bay, Port Hacking, but have ne\er seen it on the sea- 

 beaches near Sydney. 



From Melbourne, \'ictoria, Mr. G. A. Keartland wrote as follows: — '^ .-Eginlilis ciicullata 

 may be seen in limited numbers around our coast, especially near Portarlington, but at King's 

 Island, and in fact at nearly all the islands in Bass Strait, it is very numerous. During the 

 breeding season they are met with either singly or in pairs running rapidly along the sandy beach 

 near the water's edge, where they capture all sorts of small crustaceans. They simply make 

 a slight hollow in the sand above high water mark, and as the eggs so closely resemble their 

 surroundings they would frequently escape notice were it not for the tracks made by the birds 

 as they run from the water to the nest. When the eggs become partly incubated the bird sits 

 close until approached within a few yards, when she dashes olf and reveals the nest." 



Mr. W. White sent me the following notes from the Reedbeds, near Adelaide, South 

 Australia:—"! took a set of two eggs of .-Eguilitis monacha on the 24th October, 1885, on 

 American Beach, Kangaroo Island, on a ridge of pebbles closely resembling the eggs in colour 

 and size, and more round pebbles round where the eggs lay, for there was no nest. I watched 

 for part of two days before discovering the eggs, and almost trod on them a score of times 

 without seeing them." 



From Adelaide, South Australia, Dr. A. M. Morgan wrote: — " A-'ginlilis ciicullata is found 

 on all sandy beaches of the south coast, but is rarely seen on the beaches of the gulfs. This 

 bird appears to be late in breeding, as I saw a pair on the beach at Hog Bay, Kangaroo Island, 

 with two well grown young ones, on the 21st December, 1910." 



Mr. Tom Carter wrote as follows from Broome Hill, South-western Australia: — "I have 

 observed .Jigialiiis cncullata on the south-west coast and at Albany. It does not appear to occur 

 in North-western Australia." 



Mr. R. N. Atkinson wrote from Tasmania : — "y/tgialilis cncullata may be seen on most of 

 the sheltered beaches in Tasmania, and on the islands in Bass Strait, where it is usually met 

 with in pairs, but sometimes as many as half a dozen or so are congregated together. The eggs, 

 two or three in number for a sitting, are deposited in a shallow depression in the sand, near high 

 water mark. The numerous lines of footprints leading in all directions to and from the eggs 

 generally first catch the eye, the eggs being so like the surrounding pieces of seaweed and debris. 

 When the wind has been strong enough to reinove the footprints, it requires (]uite a careful 

 search to locate the eggs. I have often wondered how it happens that this bird, and others of 

 like nesting habits, successfully rear their broods, even on public beaches much frequented by 

 picnic parties and disturbed by horses and cattle and other animals, but no doubt their safety 

 lies in the care with which the eggs are, in these cases, almost universally deposited on little 



