238 BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



and secondaries margined and tipped with wliite ; the shafts 

 of the primaries are also white ; rump white ; six central 

 tail-feathers dark brown tipped with white ; the lateral 

 feathers white, tinged with brown in the centre ; lores, line 

 below the eye* and ear-coverts black ; chin, throat and all the 

 under surface white ; irides dark brown ; bill blackish grey ; 

 tarsi light ash-grey ; feet greenish grey. 



The winter plumage diflPers in wanting the rufous tints about 

 the head, neck and breast; in the ear-coverts being brown, 

 and in having a brown patch like the commencement of a 

 band on either side of the chest. 



Sp. 512. OCHTHODROMUS ? BICINCTUS. 



Double-banded Dottrel. 



Charadrius bicinctus, Jard. and Selb. 111. Orn., vol. i. pi. 28. 

 Chestnut-breasted Plover, Lath. Gen. Hist., vol. ix. p. 324. 

 u^gialitis bicinctus, Gould in Syn. Birds of Australia, part ii. 



Hiaticula bicincta, Gould, Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vi. pi. 16. 



Mr. Ronald C. Gunn informs me that he has found this 

 fine species plentifully dispersed along the northern shores 

 of Tasmania, particularly at Circular Head and its neigh- 

 bourhood. I never but once encountered it in a state of 

 nature myself, and judging from the infrequency of its oc- 

 currence in collections from Australia, its true habitat would 

 seem to be but seldom visited. During my stay at George 

 Town, considerable numbers visited the common in the 

 vicinity, and appeared to be acting under some migratory 

 impulse, for after remaining a day or two they departed to 

 some other part of the country ; not, however, before I had 

 procured as many specimens as I required. This occurred 

 about the 15th of May, the middle of the Australian winter. 

 These flights consisted of birds of various ages and in diffe- 

 rent states of plumage, some having mere indications only of 

 the bands on the breast, while others had these marks viell 



