290 IIIMANTOFODlN.f;. 



Sub-family HIMANTOPODIN^. 

 Himantopus leucocephalus. 



WHITK-HEADED STILT. 



Iloaantopns leucocrphahis, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc, 1837, p. 26; iil., Btls. Austr., fol. Vol. VI., pi. 

 24(1848); id., Handbk. Bds. Austr., Vol. II., p. 246 (186.5) ; Sharpe, Cat. Bds. Brit. Mus., 

 Vol. XXIV., p. 317 (1896) ; kl, Hand-I. Bds., Vol. I., p. 1.56 (1899). 



Adult m.^le. — rpper portiau of liuid-neck black, si'paniled front tin' glosi^y-gri'eiiish black ripper 

 back by a broad irhi('> collar on ihc. lowKr liiml-neck : wiiu/s i/lossy greenish-black ; remaituler of the 

 2)lumage pure wltile ; bill black ; legs ttnd fvl jleshi/pink : iris red. Total length in the flesh 7.7 

 inches, iving 9'3, tail ■;•.), bill 3'4, tarsus l^uo. 



Adult female. — 'Siinilar iii pltuuage to the wale. Wing S:'/ inches. 



Distribution. — North-western Australia, Northern Territory, Oueensland, New South Wales, 

 Victoria, South Australia, Central Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, Lord Howe Island, 

 Norfolk Island. 



IfsN favourable situations, in one season or another, the White-headed Stilt is distributed over 

 JL the greater portion of the Australian Continent, and likewise occurs in Tasmania. At one 

 time this species used to be common in the swamps around Melbourne, and I have frequently 

 shot it in company with the followinj,' species, the Red-necked Avocet, between Albert Park 

 and St. Kilda, now reclaimed and known as Middle Park. In this locality I have seen it in 

 flocks of about twenty to thirty, feeding in the shallow water near the muddy edges of the lagoon, 

 running hither and thither as it searched for various water-frequenting insects and small 

 molluscs. 



In North-eastern New South Wales Mr. George Savidge and his son, Mr. Clarence Savidge, 

 have found it breeding freely in the swamps of the Clarence River District. In South-western 

 New South Wales Mr. K. H. Bennett obtained many of its nests and eggs on Yandembah 

 Station and at Mossgiel. It is remarkable that in the latter locality the eggs were deposited on 

 the bare ground, near the water's edge, with a surrounding ring of debris, while those found by 

 Mr. Clarence Savidge in the swamps at Ulmarra and other parts of the Clarence River District, 

 were in substantial structures formed chiefly of water weeds. Near Adelaide, Dr. A. M. Morgan 

 found it breeding in large numbers in November, igio, at Glenelg. In North-western Australia 

 Mr. Tom Carter observed it breeding between the Gascoyne and Minilya Rivers, and again in a 

 flooded salt marsh to the south of Point Cloates. Mr. G. A. Heartland, while a member of the 

 Calvert Exploring E.Kpedition, met with it in large numbers at a lagoon near Lake Way, in 

 Western Australia, and after rain in January, 1897, again at pools along the Fitzroy River, 

 in North-western Australia. In 1894 he had previously obtained this species at the Finke River 

 and Stevenson Creek, in Central Australia, while with the Horn Scientific E.xpedition. In the 

 Australian Museum Collection there are numerous examples from all the Australian States. 

 While this species is remarkably numerous, especially in wet seasons, in the Northern and 

 Southern Coastal Districts of New South Wales, it is as a rule anything but common 

 between Newcastle and Wollongong, and is seldom observed in the neighbourhood of Sydney, four 

 specimens obtained in the Botany Swamps being all I have seen procured near the metropolis. 

 It is, however, of a wandering disposition, and may appear in a district where it has not been 

 previously observed for many years. In 1892 the late Dr. P. H. Metcalfe forwarded me a skin for 



