112 Berne Y, Birds of ilie Richmond District, N.Q. [.st^Tan. 



collected round them, arranged apparently by the sitting bird gathering all 

 within reach of her while on the nest. These nests were some hundreds of 

 yards apart from each other, and in no way formed a colony. 1 do not think 

 I ever saw more than two of these birds together. 



Black - BREASTED Plover {Zonifcr tricolor). — An irregular visitor, 

 generally in small parties, but I have seen as many as two or three hundred 

 together. The cry of this Plover is very similar to that of the preceding 

 species, but I think Z. tricolor has a harsher and slightly higher pitched 

 note, while that of Z. iniles is fuller and more musical, but it requires a bit 

 of study to distinguish between the two. 



Lesser Golden Plover {Chnradrius domim'cus). — Just as the night 

 was getting the better of the day, on the 22nd October this year, I shot one 

 of these out of a pair as they fed on a swamp. The light was very bad at 

 the time, and I could only see sufficiently to tell that the birds were 

 unfamiliar to me. I regretted the act as soon as I picked the bird up and 

 recognized it, for I felt sure it was one of two I had closely watched with 

 field-glasses at a waterhole eight miles away on the nth inst. — and these 

 are the only specimens I have ever come across. 



Details of the bird shot are as follow : — 



No. Se.x. 



176 ... Female 



Ovaries reduced to the minimum. 



Oriental Dottrel i^Ochthodromus -oeredus). — Is the most regular 

 migrant of all the Limicoline birds that visit the Richmond district. Arriving 

 in September or October, generally the former, they leave again in March 

 or April, again generally the former. My earliest and latest dates are — 8th 

 Septemljer, 1904, and 5th April, 1905. 



Measurements of one that came into my hands in February, 1905, areas 

 follow : — 



Total 

 No. Sex. length. Wing, 



Inches, Inches. 



103 ... Female ... 9^^ ... 6i| 



Ovaries very minute indeed. 



Mr. A. S. Le Souef wrote me that the stomach contained small beetles 

 only. 



Red-capped Dottrel {/Egialitis n/Jicnpil/a).— Only two records- 

 January, 1900, saw two together, and March, 1904, saw one. 



Black-fronted Dottrel [.■E<^ialitis mchviops). — This species is 

 practically a permanent resident, though their numbers vary from time to 

 time very largely, and apparently without much reference to the season 

 of the year. Being a wader it naturally avoids dry times, when shallow 

 waters are scarce. Generally seen singly, seldom more than a pair, though 

 one day in August, 1904, I counted twenty-four of this neat little Dottrel on 

 a half-mile stretch of bore water, and on another occasion (January, 1906) 

 I saw eight on a hole you could throw a stone across. Of their nests, which 

 are very hard to see, I have only found two, one in April this year, con- 

 taining three eggs, and the other in September, 1904, with two eggs. This 

 last nest was a slight depression formed by pushing aside a few pebbles 

 on a quartz gravel bank, the cavity being very slightly floored with small 

 fragments of dried vegetation and portions of the flower-head of the 

 Button-grass {Eleitsine ccgyptiaca). On the 29th November, 1901, I watched 

 a pair with two well-feathered youngsters. 



Dottrel {Pcltohyas attsiralis).— I have only come across this Dottrel 



