222 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



back and scapularies light brownish grey ; wing-coverts grey ; 

 primaries deep black ; secondaries white at the base on their 

 inner webs, cinnamon-grey on their outer webs, and largely 

 tipped with black ; tail white at the base, largely tipped with 

 black, the extreme ends of the feathers being cinnamon-grey, 

 particularly the two centre ones; irides primrose-yellow; 

 wattles lemon-yellow ; bill lemon-yellow at the base, black at 

 the tip; legs and feet carmine-red; the scales in front 

 blackish green. 



Total length 12 inches ; bill If ; wing Sf ; tail 4 ; tarsi 2f . 



Genus SARCIOPHORUS, Strickland. 



A genus nearly allied to the last, and of which a single 

 species inhabits Australia. 



Sp. 502. SARCIOPHORUS PECTORALIS. 

 Black-breasted Plover. 



Char adrius pedor alls, Cuv. in Mus. Par. — Wagl. Syst. Av., sp. 8, 



tricolor, Vieill. 2nde Edit, du Nouv. Diet. d^Hist. Nat., torn, xxvii. 



p. 147. 

 vanello'ides, Peale. 



Sarciophorus pectoralis, Gould, Birds of Australia, foL, vol. vi. 

 pi. 11. 



This species is known to inhabit Tasmania, South Australia, 

 and New South Wales, but over what other portions of the 

 Australian continent its range is extended has not yet been 

 ascertained. I have never seen it in collections either from 

 the western or northern shores. Its favourite locahties are 

 open sterile downs, thinly covered with grasses or other kinds 

 of vegetation ; but it is occasionally to be met with on the 

 grassy flats in the neighbourhood of rivers. It is much more 

 tame in its disposition than the Wattled Plover, and permits 

 a near approach before taking alarm. It trips very quickly 



