600 MR. E. P. RAMSAY ON THE STILT-PLOVER. [May 23, 



ECHIOTHRIX LEUCURA. 



Fur dark grey brown, varied with black-tipped hairs on the back 

 and sides ; sides of nose, cheeks, throat, chest, and underside of 

 limbs white ; feet moderate, covered above with dark-brown hair ; 

 tail yellow, black at the base ; cutting-teeth white ; whiskers long, 

 black, rather rigid. Length of body and head 9 j inches ; tail im- 

 perfect ; hind feet about 2 inches. 



Hab. Australia; British Museum, male ? Tail imperfect. 



4. Note ou the Eggs of the Australian Stilt-Plover [Himan-' 

 topus leucocephalus). By E. P. Ramsay, CM.Z.S. 



As nothing seems to have been published upon the nidification of 

 this fine species, I beg leave to offer a few remarks upon the sub- 

 ject. The Stilted Plover must be considered rather a scarce than a 

 rare bird in New South Wales, its visits being few and far between. 

 When it does come, however, which is usually in some very dry or 

 remarkably wet season, it appears in great numbers and in all stages 

 of plumage. In 186.5 large flocks arrived, in company with the 

 Straw-necked and White Ibises {Ge^'onticus spinicoUis and Threski- 

 ornis strictipennis), and took up their abode in the lagoons and 

 swamps in the neighbourhood of Grafton, on the Clarence River, 

 where, on my visit to that district in September last (1866) all three 

 species were still enjoying themselves. 



A few days previously to my arrival in Grafton, a black in the em- 

 ploy of Mr. J. Macgillivray, and a very intelligent collector, discovered 

 a nest of this species containing four eggs, which have been secured 

 for our collection. The nest was a slight structure, consisting 

 merely of a few short pieces of rushes and grass, placed in and around 

 a depression at the foot of a clump of rushes growing near the 

 water's edge of a lagoon in the neighbourhood of South Grafton. 

 The eggs vary slightly in form, two being pyriform, the other two 

 rather long. The ground-colour is of a yellowish olive or light yel- 

 lowish brown, lighter when freshly taken — in some sparingly, in 

 others thickly blotched and spotted Avith umber and black, the black 

 spots running together and forming large patches on the thick ends. 

 Length from 1^^,^ inch to 1 j-\, inch ; breadth 1 j inch to 1-t inch. 



Tbe immature birds have the top and back of the head, back of 

 the neck, and shoulders grey, which parts become black, inter- 

 spersed with white feathers, before finally reaching the plumage of 

 the adult. 



