296 



HIMANTOPOIIIN-B. 



are usually saucer-like depressions in the bare ground, on some island or mud bank, a few twigs, 

 pebbles or bits of hardened clay being gathered round the edge. They nest either singly or in 

 company, and usually after heavy rain, whether in the spring, summer or autumn." 



From Port Augusta, South Australia, Dr. A. Chenery wrote me as follows in July, 1901 ; — - 

 " After rain in February this year I found many nests of Reiurviroitra ruhyicolln, on the 3rd 

 April, with three and four eggs, on Arcoona Station, one hundred and forty miles north-west 

 from here.'" 



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

 rostra novce-hoUandiig was not nearly so common in North-western .Australia as Himantopus 

 Icucocephalus. A few pairs were breeding with the latter birds, but they were very shy and kept 

 well out of gunshot. Their eggs were larger than those of the White-headed Stilt. An odd 

 bird was occasionally seen at inland pools." 



The eggs are four in number for a sitting, oval in form, some specimens being rather 

 sharply pointed at the smaller end, the shell being comparatively close-grained, dull and lustreless. 

 They vary from a light yellowish-stone colour to a pale creamy-brown, over which is distributed 

 blackish freckles, spots and small blotches, some of irregular shape, others rounded in form, 

 with which are intermingled similar underlying markings of inky-grey. Some specimens have 

 the markings sepia, blackish-brown or umber-brown, while some have short strangely curious 

 ill-shapen figures and fine hair lines, or small patches formed of several confluent markings. 

 As a rule the markings, whether large or small, are fairly evenly distributed over the shell, and 

 sometimes there is a tendency for these to predominate more at one end than the other. A 

 set of three in the Australian Museum Collection, taken in October, 1881, by Mr. K. H. 

 Bennett on Yandembah Station, near Booligal, New South Wales, measures : — Length (A) 

 1-95 X 1-4 inches; (B) i-gg x 1-38 inches; (C) 1-95 x 1-38 inches. A set of four taken by 

 Mr. Bennett in the same locality, on the 15th August, 1889, measures : — Length (.A) 1-96 x 1-47 

 inches; (B) Vi)2 x 1-44 inches; (C) fg6 x 1-45 inches; (D) i-gft x 1-4 inches. A set of four 

 taken by Mr. S. Robinson, on the 4th September, 1909, at Nepine Creek, South-western 

 Queensland, measures: — Length (A) 1-97 x 1-48 inches; (B) 2-05 x 1-47 inches; (C) 1-97 x 

 i'45 inches; (D) 2 x 1-41 inches. 



Young birds are covered with dull white down, except that on the tail, which is very long 

 and smoky-black with indications of rich buffy-brown feathers; scapulars rich buff; outer 

 upper wing-coverts white; the remainder dark brown, largely tipped with rich bufT; on the 

 head and upper half of neck the dull white down is intermingled with dull chestnut feathers. 

 Total length from tip of bill 9 inches, wing 2-5 inches. Another slightly older specimen, which 

 has lost most of the down except on the mantle, lower back, tail and flanks, has the scapulars 

 dull buff indistinctly barred with dark brown ; central lesser and median upper wing-coverts 

 dark brown edged with dull buff; prmiaries dark brown ; inner webs of the innermost and of the 

 outer secondaries white; head and neck dull chestnut, with here and there tufts of white down; 

 forehead, chin and upper throat and remainder of under surface dull white. Total length 11 

 inches, wing 4 inches. 



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

 Australia, but as will be seen from the preceding notes; after unusually heavy rains this species 

 often breeds in the late summer and autumn months. 



