434 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 



then, alighting on some rising- ground, it steadily keeps watch. 

 During the time it remains on the lookout it indulges in a peculiar 

 habit of jerking its head backwards and forwards, uttering its 

 monotonous ' twit-twit ' at intervals." It is an early breeder, as 

 would appear from Mr. Potts' notes — " August 2nd, 1856, saw a 

 nest with two eggs, Rakaia River; September 1st, 1855, saw a 

 nest with three eggs, Rakaia River; October 14th, 1857, young 

 birds quite strong." 



The young in down resemble little brownish puffs, being of a 

 bright sandy-yellow, mottled with dark-brown on the upper surface, 

 changing to yellowish- white on the underparts. 'I hey run as soon 

 as hatched, and with great swiftness when alarmed. 



Of this species Sir Walter Buller remarks : — " In location of the 

 nest itself there is very little attempt of concealment, the bird 

 apparently trusting more for protection to the assimilation of 

 coloring, but after the young are hatched out the old birds (and 

 particularly the female) manifest considerable solicitude for the 

 safety of their offspring, and feign lameness or a damaged wing 

 for alluring intruders away, a device which very often succeeds. 

 The young bird runs the moment it quits the shell, and is not slow 

 to second its parent in the art of self-preservation. Its sandy 

 coloring makes it almost indistinguishable when squatting on the 

 ground, and it has the instinct to remain perfectly motionless 

 the moment it hears the note of alarm, even allowing itself to be 

 handled without betraying a sign of vitality." 



^GIALITIS MONACHA. 

 Hooded Dottrel. 



Figure — Gould: Birds of Australia, fol., vol. vi., pi. 18. 



Ramsay' s Tab. List — u^gialitis nionacha, Geoff. 



Previous Descripiions of Eggs — Gould : Bii-ds of Australia 

 (1848); also Hdbk., vol. II., p. 231 (1865). Ramsay: P.L.S., 

 N.S.W,, vol. VII. (1882). North: Cat. Nests and Eggs, Aus- 

 tralian Birds, with fig., p. 3U-I (1889). 



Geographical Dixtributinn — South Queensland, New South 

 Wales. Victoria, South and West Australia, Tasmania, and inter- 

 mediate islands. 



Nest — A slight circular depression in the sand just above high- 

 water mark, sometimes scantily lined with small broken stems and 

 bladders of seaweed and dead polyzoa. 



l''qgs — Clutch, 2, but usually 3 ; pyriform inclined in shape ; 

 ground color, of a beautiful soft stony shade, marked over with 

 numerous spots and small irregular-shaped markings and dashes of 

 dark brown or sepia. One egg of a clutch taken on Phillip Island, 

 Victoria, is distinctly paler in the ground color than the remaining 

 two. Dimensions in centimetres — (1)355 X 2-6; (2)3-47 X 2-61; 



