EGGS OF CHARADRIID^. 423 



South and Western Australia, either alive (packed in damp moss 

 in tin boxes) or in strong spii'its of wine. h\ the latter case the 

 colors of the li-sdng animal should be noted carefully, and only a 

 few specimens should be put in each bottle. 



7.— EGGS OF THE AUSTRALIAN BREEDERS OF THE 



CHARADRIIDJE, OR PLOVERS, SANDPIPERS, &c. 



Bij A. J. CAMFBELL, F.L.S. 



At the Hobart meeting of the Science Association Colonel 

 Legge's valuable contribution " On the Geographical Distribution 

 of the Australian Limicol(s^^ or Chai'ad):iine birds aroused much 

 interest. 



It may now be opportvme to give descriptions of the eggs of the 

 species of that most fascinating family found breeding in Aus- 

 tralia — home breeders they may be called, or, as Colonel Legge 

 terms them, resident species and partial migrants. 



There are eighteen descriptions of such birds' eggs furnished in 

 this article, sixteen of which are described from examples in the 

 author's own collection. Such matter (original or otherwise) as is 

 likely to prove interesting is added, also any information bearing 

 on the nidification of the species. These are, namely : — 



(EDICNEMUS GEALLARIUS. 

 Southern Stone-Curlew. 



Figure — Gould: Birds of Australia, fob, vol. vi., pi. 5. 



Ramsay's Tab. List — (Ediciiemus graUarius, Lath. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs — Gould : Birds of Australia 

 (1848), also Handbook, vol. ii., p. 211 (1865). Harting : Proc, 

 Zool. Soc, p. 458 (1874). Ramsay: Proc. Zool. Soc, p. 335 

 (1877). North: Cat. Nests and Eggs, Australian Birds, with lig., 

 p. 297 (1889). 



Geographical Distribution — Whole of Australia. 



Nest — Eggs are deposited on the bare ground. Mr. Hermann 

 Lau, an excellent observer, once found them placed in the centre 

 of an old cow dropping, at another time in a furrow of a cart 

 wheel. 



Eggs — Clutch, invariably 2 ; elegant in shape and inclined to 

 oval ; shell, thin and somewhat fine in texture ; ground color, pale 

 stone or light bufF, blotched all over, sometimes with large 

 markings of umber and dull slate. In some sets the markings 

 are smaller or finer in character. In a handsome pair taken on 

 the Werribee Plains, Victoria, the umber coloring predominates 



