172 NATURAL HISTOttY SKETCHES. 



We had two species of avocet, as we used to call 

 both ; but one was not a true avocet, for though it 

 resembled the real avocet in shape and in the peculiar 

 formation of the feet, the bill was straight, and the body 

 mantle was light red instead of black ; the real avocet 

 exactly resembled its British namesake in colour, but 

 had not the large white spot on the wings peculiar to 

 that bird. Both species used to come on to our coasts at 

 uncertain times ; used occasionally to associate ; but I 

 think the real avocet was the most common. 



Of the Greles, besides the dabchick, we now and then 

 killed a large crested grebe in the bay, but this I never 

 saw inland. I never myself saw the snake-necked grebe 

 here, although I have seen a specimen in Melbourne, 

 said to have been killed in the neighbourhood. 



"We had neither the merganser or goosander here that 

 I know of. 



The black swan, the two wild geese, and nine species of 

 wild duck, have already been described in my list of 

 game birds. 



We now come to the gulls and terns, and of these 

 birds again our coasts were rich neither in numbers nor 

 varieties. 



Of the gulls, I could only identify three species in our 

 district : the great black-backed gull, the lesser black- 

 backed gull, and the common, or, as we called it, the 

 pigeon-gull, with a white eye ; all these resembled their 

 British namesakes in habits and appearance, and perhaps 

 the pigeon-gull was the commonest. We had, however, 



