34 



the winter. I met with a flock of four on the 10th of March 

 last on the banks of the Break-of-Day River, procuring two 

 fine examples, and since that date, L have observed on two 

 occasions isolated individuals on marshy land in the same 

 locality. Our Wattled Pewitt is an exceedingly fine member 

 of the Charadrince, surpassing in size most of the Indian 

 species of the family. I venture to append dimensions of an 

 example in my collection, the bird not having before been 

 published as occurring in the Island, — Male, total length, 

 15 inches; wing, 9*9; tail, 4"4 ; tarsus, 3*2; bare tibia, 

 1*1 ; mid toe and claw, 17 ; bill to gape, 1*45 ; wattles, 1*8 

 from eye to tip ; spur, - 6. Predom of the tibia is a dull 

 magenta, while the tarsus and foot are greenish pnrple, with 

 the edges of the scales of a lighter hue ; iris, golden yellow ; 

 bill, with the tip dusky fleshy, and the basal portions, together 

 with the wattles and orbital skin, primrose yellow. The note 

 of this bird is very distinct from that of the Black-breasted 

 Pewit, from which it may be readily distinguished at a distance 

 by its much larger size, and bold showy aspect. 



.ZEgialites monacha, Gould. 



Our great pioneer in Australian ornithology appears to have 

 fallen into error concerning the Hooded Dotterel, as is shewn 

 in his fine plate of the bird, in which he has figured the female 

 with a light head, and describes that part as thus differing 

 from the male in his accompanying notice of the species* 

 A possible cause of the mistake might have been that all the 

 examples of females which fell to his gun,were immature birds, 

 but such a coincidence would be strange, when we know what 

 a hard working naturalist he was. I am not able to state 

 whether the young have the head concolorous with the hind 

 neck as I have not as yet handled immature examples, but I 

 can state with certainty that two females now before me, shot 

 during the last breeding season, have the " hood " and throat 

 coal black — as deep as the hue of the male — and the white 

 and black markings of the hind neck identical with those of 

 the latter sex ; furthermore, among the scores of this dotterel, 

 which I have seen this year on the beaches of the East Coast, 

 I have not observed a single bird with the grey head, depicted 

 in Gould's work. This species " nests " on the sand, above 

 high water mark, and does not appear to sit much on its eggs 

 during the heat of the day, trusting, I presume, in common 

 with most of the Pressirostris, to the good offices of the sun to 

 perform the work of incubation. A nest which I found on the 

 10th of January last, was a hole scraped in the sand about 40 

 yards from the tidal mark, and situated on a slight rise, 



* The experience of other observers on this subject, is much needed. 



