440 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION D. 



Geographical Dutribution — New South Wales, Yictoria, South 

 and West Australia, and Tasmania. 



Nest — The bare ground, but sometimes there is a semblance of a 

 nesting-place lined with a few portions of dry reeds or other 

 herbage. 



Eygs — Clutch, 4 ; in shape inclined to pyriform ; shell, firm in 

 texture ; ground color, rich olive-stone, or yellowish-olive, marked 

 with sjiots and heavy blotches of sepia, together with a few lighter 

 smudges of umber, especially on or near the obtuse end. Dimen- 

 sions of odd examples in centimetres — (1) 4"46 x 3-14 ; (2) 4-37 x 

 3-17 ; (3) 4-33 x 3-15 ; (4) 4-65 x 3-14. 



Observations — From swampy acres full of Heautiful aquatic 

 plants contiguous to the Murray River I have flushed, in company 

 Avith other waterfowl, the banded stilt, which can be detected 

 amongst the whirr of wings and voices of the other birds by its 

 puppy-like barking notes. As in the days of good Gilbert, I made 

 the acquaintance of this fine stilt on Rottnest Island, Western 

 Australia, where it is locally known as the " Rottnest snipe." 

 There they wade gracefully in the shallows of the salt lake, which 

 is evidently a favorite feeding ground because the birds resort 

 thither annually. About the middle of November (the 18th was 

 the precise day the season of my visit) they arrive in companies of 

 tens or twenties in number, apparently coming from the far 

 interior because none are observed on the adjacent mainland, and 

 gradually increasing in numbers till thousands may be seen upon 

 the face of the lake. They remain all summer, d-parting again 

 about April. During the interval between April and November, 

 no doubt, they breed in some secluded part in the interior. But 

 occasionally, especially during wet seasons, the banded stilts may 

 be found breeding in Riverina, as ni the year when my young 

 friend. Mr. Lindsay Clark, enriched my collection with the eggs of 

 this species, which he procured from near Booligal, on the Lachlan, 

 New South Wales, the wet season of 1879. 



HIMANTOPUS LEUCOCEPHALUS. 

 "White-headed Stilt. 



Figure — Gould: Birds of Australia, vol., fol. vi.,pl. 24. 



Rnmsny^s Tab. List — Himantoims leucncephalus, Gld. 



Previous Descriptions of Eggs — Ramsay : Pi'oc. Zool. Soc, p. 

 600(1867). Potts: Trans. New Zealand Inst., vol. ii., p. 70 

 (1870). BuUer: Birds of New Zealand (1873); also vol. ii., 

 p. 23 (1888). Harting: Proc. Zool. Soc., p. 459 (1874). 



Geographical Distribution — Whole of Australia, Tasmania, and 

 New Guinea. 



. Xest — A slight depression in the ground, about 5in. across by 

 lin. deep, and containing a few pieces of grass. 



