PELTOIIVAS. 289 



Among the animal kingdom, birds, owing usually to their non-combative habits and lackof 

 powers of retaliation, appear to be highly endowed with instinct enabling them to resort to many 

 stratagems and devices to secure protection, either from an enemy when threatened by danger, 

 or during the usually anxious period of the breeding season. Birds that deposit their eggs on 

 the grassy sward, or nearly bare earth, would appear to stand more in need of a protector than 

 any others, but strange as it may seem, the bare and exposed situations in which the eggs are 

 laid affords them the very best protection. Take for instance the eggs of the Stone Plover 

 ((Edicncmns grallavins) and the Spur-winged Plover ( LohivaufUiis lobatits), how closely in colour 

 they resemble their surroundings ; or the eggs of the Black-faced Dotterel (Mgialitis mclanops), 

 the surrounding pebbles on the margin or in the dried up bed of a creek or river. The eggs, too, 

 of the Australian Pratincole (StiltiaisabcUa), so frequently deposited on a sun-baked plain, and as 

 wheel-marks sometimes show, right in the centre of the track, how hard they are to distinguish, 

 even in their apparently unprotected state. Again the eggs of the Red-capped Dotterel 

 (.Egidhtis nificapiUa ), deposited on sandy dunes and sea-beaches, with only a few small pieces 

 of gravel to keep them from rolling away, how closely do they assimilate to their surroundings, 

 and how very difficult they are to discover by the untrained eye. The actions of the birds alone 

 are frequently the only means of discovering them, by their feigning a broken wing or leg. This 

 is where instinct is at fault, for to anyone but a novice it is the most fatal mistake the birds 

 could make, and is a sure indication that either eggs or young are near at hand. Some birds, 

 however, appear to be endowed with a certain amount of reasoning power, for why will the Red- 

 kneed Dotterel (ErytJwoqonys cindiis), when laying her eggs near the margin of a swamp, often 

 slightly smear them with mud; the Australian Dotterel (Pcltohvas ansti-alis), when leaving her 

 eggs, covers them with a layer of thin twigs, two or three inches in length ; and the Black-backed 

 Magpie (Gyninorlniia tihiccn), when leaving the nest, covers her eggs with a layer of wool and 

 rabbit fur ? Many species, too, when a Cuckoo deposits an egg in their nest, if it contains no 

 eggs of their own, cover up the Cuckoo's egg with a layer of lining material sufficiently thick 

 to prevent incubation. 



The eggs are two or three in number for a sitting, oval or swollen oval in form, some 

 tapering gently, others abruptly, towards the smaller end. The ground colour is of a medium 

 shade of brown, over which is rather sparingly distributed irregular-shaped dots, spots, small 

 blotches, short streaks and dashes of black or blackish-brown, with which are intermingled a 

 few nearly obsolete markings of the same colour, appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell. 

 There is very little variation in the colour and disposition of the markings on the eggs of this 

 species. As a rule they are fairly evenly distributed, but occasionally they may be found larger, 

 or predominate towards the thicker end ; in no specimen have I seen even a tendency for them 

 to assume the form of a zone. Two eggs of a set of three, taken by Mr. \V. A. Mackay on One 

 Tree Plain, near Deniliquin, New South Wales, measure: — -Length (A) 1-52 x 1-07 inches; 

 (B) 1-5 X 1-07 inches. A set of two taken by the late Mr. K. H. Bennett on Yandembah 

 Station, midway between Booligal and Mossgiel, measures: — Length (A) 1*47 x i-o8 inches; 

 (B) 1-47 X 1-07 inches ; one of these eggs is figured on Plate B. XX., fig. 2. A set of three in the 

 Australian Museum Collection, taken by Mr. Bennett in the same locality on the 29th April, 

 1889, measures :^Length (A) 1-45 x i-02 inches; (B) 1-42 x 1-03 inches; (C) 1-47 x 1-03 

 inches. 



Recently hatched young are clothed in down, pale buff above, with here and there blackish- 

 brown bases, giving the upper parts a mottled appearance; forehead, lores, sides of head and 

 throat buffy-white; remainder of the under surface pale buff. Total length 3-25 inches. 



August and the four following months constitute the usual breeding season in Eastern 

 Australia, but as may be seen by the notes recorded, it is greatly influenced by the rainfall, many 

 birds breeding again at the end of summer, or throughout the autumn and early winter months. 

 73 



