216 FAUNA OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA 



One of the most notable of the plovers on the west coast 

 is Himantopius leucocephalus^ remarkable for the length 

 of its slender legs and its equally slender bill. It is gen- 

 erally seen in flocks of about twenty birds, which frequent 

 the sea-shore and the banks of rivers nearly through- 

 out their entire courses. This bird is very wild and difficult 

 to shoot, even in spots that are perhaps never — certainly 

 very rarely — visited by the colonists or other persons 

 using guns. 



There are at least two species of oyster-catchers : one, 

 called by the colonists the red-bill, has a pied plumage 

 and a bright red bill ; the other bird is Hcematopus 

 unicolour. The red-bill is very common, especially in 

 favoured localities ; the other is fairly abundant, but is a 

 somewhat local bird. There is, I believe, a third species, 

 but as when I fired at it I missed with both barrels, I did 

 not have an opportunity of examining the bird very closely. 



There is a godwit on the coasts of both the Swan River 

 and the Champion Bay districts ; and this bird, which I 

 cannot perceive to differ from the bar-tailed godwit 

 {Limosa rufd) of Europe, is found, with another species 

 which does not differ from the black- tailed (Z. melanurd)^ in 

 the Gascoyne River locality. I have seen both these birds 

 at various points on the south coast of Australia, but 

 never on the east. They are nowhere numerous, and I 

 never could learn anything of their breeding habits. I 

 therefore conclude that they are migrants or occasional 

 visitants. 



In the country south of Swan River, and also in Shark 

 Bay, there is a species of dotterel (Eudromias rufiventris) 

 called by the colonists a plover. This bird is more 

 plentiful in other districts, and seems to be very widely 

 spread in Australia, for I have shot specimens near Port 

 Darwin, in North Queensland, and in South Australia. 



All the birds enumerated above are as often found on 

 the courses of rivers as on the shores, except where the 

 settlements are thickly established. I have rarely found 

 any of them far from water ; but on some streams, in the 

 dry season, when only a few holes contain mud or water^ 



