232 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



collected were of a pale stone-colour, sprinked over with 

 numerous small irregularly-shaped marks of brownish black, 

 and are one inch and a half long by one inch and an eighth 

 broad. 



While tripping over the sandy beach, which it does with 

 much elegance of movement, the black head of the male shows 

 very conspicuously. 



The male has the head, fore-part of the neck, and a band 

 across the upper part of the back sooty black ; back of the 

 neck and all the under surface white; back, shoulders and 

 tertials greyish brown ; centre of the wing and the basal 

 portion of the internal webs of the primaries and secondaries 

 white, the rest black ; two middle tail-feathers black ; the 

 three next on each side white at the base and tip and black in 

 the centre, the remaining feathers wholly white ; irides yel- 

 lowish or orange-brown ; eyelash rich reddish orange or scar- 

 let ; bill rich orange at the base, passing into yellow and 

 black at the tip ; legs flesh-colour. 



The female differs from the male in having the crown mot- 

 tled with black and white, the face and throat white, and in 

 having only a narrow line of black at the base of the neck 

 behind. 



Youthful birds may be known by their resembling the 

 female, but having the feathers of the back and upper surface 

 narrowly fringed with brownish black. 



Sp. 509. ^GIALITES NIGRIFRONS. 



Black-fronted Dottrel. 



Cliaradrius nigrifrons, Cav. in Mus. Paris. — Temm. PI. Col., 47. fig. 1. 



melanops, Vieill. Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat., torn, xxvii. p. 139. 



JE(/ialitis nigrifruns, Gould in Syu. Birds of Australia, part ii. 

 Hiaticula nigrifrons, G. R. Gray, List of Birds in Brit. Mus. Coll., 

 part iii. p. 71. 



Hiaticula nigrifrons, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vi. pi. 20. 



The temperate latitudes of Australia constitute the true 



