170 NATURAL HISTORY SKETCHES. 



than the lesser crake of Europe, and I should fancy must 

 be the smallest wader in the world ; the beak was Jight 

 green, red at the root ; the legs green, the eye reddish, 

 the eyelid dark. I rarely saw either on the wing ; they 

 would run among the tussocks of swamp-grass like mice, 

 and the dogs often chopped them. 



I cannot say that I ever identified a true water-rail 

 out here. 



A species of dunlin, or small stint, came in the autumn 

 on to our plains in large flocks, but I never saw them in 

 the breeding season. It much resembled the British 

 dunlin, and I fancy we had two if not three varieties j 

 at any rate, the specimens I killed used to differ very 

 much in size and plumage. 



Occasionally, but rarely, I have killed a bird in every 

 respect resembling the European long-legged stilt, with 

 a beautiful red eye. I always found solitary examples, 

 generally standing in the shallow water at the edges of 

 the lagoons. 



"We had a species of large wader, which I fancied 

 rather resembled our bar-tailed godivit. It was known 

 among the shooters by the name of the sea-snipe ; light 

 grey and mottled. I generally found them singly or 

 in pairs, both along the coast and in the marshes ; it had a 

 loud, long, single call-note, which I often used to hear 

 after dark. 



The smallest of all the stints with us was a little light- 

 plumaged bird, with a chestnut head ; it was not nearly 

 so large as the English Kentish plover, and used to 



