°^^y''J Berney, Birds of the Richmond District, N.Q. 



113 



in four years out of the past seven, as follows : — December, 1901 ; January 

 and September, 1902 ; November, 1904 ; and January, March, and Sep- 

 tember, 1905. They are always on the high, dry downs, usually in small 

 parties up to ten, sometimes only a single individual ; on one occasion I 

 flushed a mob of thirty-one birds. 



White-headed Stilt {Himantopus lci(C0LCphalus).~\J\Vft many more 

 Waders, the Stilts in their movements are governed largely by the season, 

 and as ours is notoriously uncertain it is not surprising to find that it is as 

 likely to be one month as another when these birds are here. They cannot 

 be relied upon for any one month out of the twelve. They are seen in 

 congregations of four or five up to forty or fifty. 



They, I have no doubt, occasionally nest in the district, though I have 

 never found their eggs ; that they do not do so more often is due to our 

 having such poor sites for the purpose, and the presence of sheep every- 

 where. I saw a pair in February, 1902, that I felt sure by their antics had 

 eggs or young. In February, 1903, and again in the same month in 1905, 

 I watched with glasses birds in immature plumage amongst a mob of old 

 ones. Their yapping cry is evidently common to the family, for Darwin, 

 writing of Hyiiiantopus nigricollis in the Argentine Republic, says : — " These 

 birds in a flock utter a noise that singularly resembles the cry of a pack of 

 small dogs in full chase." 



Red-necked Avocet {Recurvirostra nova-hollandicc). — I have only seen 

 it twice — in December, 1902, and February, 1903, a single bird each time, 

 feeding along the water's edge. On following it up on one of the occasions 

 for further observation, without hesitation it took to deep water and swam 

 to the other side, and on my going round it swam back again. 



Little Whimbrel {Mesoscolopax mtmifus).~K migrant that observa- 

 tions show arrives here sometimes as early as 19th September, but as a rule 

 not till October. In 1904 it did not put in an appearance till roth November, 

 while the springs of 1901 and 1902 were both blank as far as concerns the 

 Little Whimbrels, for I saw nothing of them until the autumns of those two 

 seasons, when the birds were making north again. 



During the season 1900- 1901 I did not see them at all. They leave the 

 Richmond district to return to their nesting-grounds, somewhere in north- 

 east Asia, in March or April, the 3rd of the latter month being the latest 

 date upon which I have seen them here. 



There is a difference between the spring and autumn migrations as the 

 birds pass here. In the former they are represented by single individuals 

 and small parties, but in the autumn they come along in flocks of hundreds, 

 often thousands. I can only account for it by surmising that they reach our 

 shores in big bodies, and then, having attained their object, their troubles 

 being over, and many being weary, they split up, and, as time is no object, 

 work overland southward at their ease. 



But starting back north is a different thing ; they have all their work before 

 them, and are bound to time at the other end, for there the serious business 

 of the bird's life takes place — the hatching of eggs and rearing of the young. 

 They are strong and fit for the long journey that lies before them, and each 

 one is imbued with the one idea of reaching that far-off land. There is no 

 indecision, there are no waverers, they leave all together. 



I have in my diary two exceptionally late dates upon which I have seen 

 Little Whimbrel— t 2th April, 1896, and 23rd April, 1905, but as they were 

 solitary birds in each instance, I expect they had been unable, on account 

 of sickness or wounds, to follow their mates in the general exodus that 

 took place some weeks earlier. Under date 14th March, 1905, I have a note 

 as follows ; — "10.30 p.m., bright moonlight night, large numbers of these 

 birds passing at no great height overhead, all going N.W." Their cry of 

 "Whai'ut, whai'ut" is easily recognisable. 



