GRALLATORES. 283 



habitat of this beautiful Kttle Dottrel ; for, so far as I have 

 been able to learn, it is never found in the northern part of 

 that country, nor can Tasmania claim it as a part of its avi- 

 fauna ; the climate of the latter country being less genial, and 

 the seas which wash its shores being too rough and boisterous 

 for the abode of so delicate a bird as the JEgialites nigrifrons. 

 Even in Australia the exposed sea-beaches seem to be 

 avoided, and it is most frequently found in the interior of the 

 country, on the margins of pools and lakes, and in the most 

 retired situations. It also frequents the sides of rivers which 

 sparingly occur in the heart of the country ; I frequently 

 encountered it while descending the Namoi, on the lowest 

 part of which river I was so fortunate as to discover its eggs. 

 They were deposited on the ground beside the stream ; they 

 now grace my cabinet, and are esteemed as one of my greatest 

 rarities, and to which many pleasing associations are attached, 

 connected with my visit to the distant region in which they 

 were procured. 



The colonies of Swan River, South Australia, and New 

 South Wales are equally visited by this bird ; and its range 

 appears to be general over those portions of Australia lying 

 between the twenty-eighth and thirty-seventh degrees of south 

 latitude. 



No member of the genus is more tame than the present ; 

 for as it trips nimbly along the sides of the pools it will allow 

 of a sufficiently near approach for the observer to see the 

 colour of the eye, and the brilliant ring of scarlet which 

 encircles it ; and when forced to take wing it merely flies to 

 the opposite bank or to a very short distance, and then 

 alights again. 



The two eggs above mentioned so nearly resembled the 

 surface of the sand-bank upon which they were deposited, 

 that it was by the merest chance they were not passed by 

 unnoticed. In form they nearly resemble the eggs of other 

 Dottrels, being considerably pointed at the smaller end ; they 



