BY COLONEL W. V. LEGGE, E.A., ETC. 95 



indicate that there is a change of colouring after breeding. The 

 dress is, however, so variable, that unless a large series of 

 specimens were got together, shot at all times of the year, the 

 changes could not properly be worked out. 



The plumage of the young bird in April is as follows ; — 

 Head, hind neck, back, and wings, earthy brown, the feathers 

 of the back with narrow rufescent edgings ; the scapulars and 

 wing coverts more conspicuously edged than in the adult ; 

 forehead whitish, grading into the brown of the head ; throat 

 and under surface white, tinged with buff more or less iDeueath 

 the ear coverts ; a more or less incomplete brown baud across 

 the -upper part of the chest, in some only a brown wash ; legs 

 and feet dark olive-green. As time goes on the brown pectoral 

 band becomes darker, and in May blackish feathers, tipped with 

 white, are acquired ; at the same time the surface feathers of 

 the lower band begin to appear and may be found lying beneath 

 the white plumage. In June specimens are procurable with 

 the black band showing a want of uniformity on account of the 

 feathers being pale tipped here and there, and the rufous band 

 the same OAving to the white tippings. At the end of July, by a 

 change in the feathers the bands become uniform and well 

 defined. During this time the forehead bar and the loral stripe 

 extending beneath the eye and down the neck to the band 

 have been developing and becoming black. An examination of 

 a large number of specimens has led to this diagnosis which, 

 I think, in the main will be found correct, but it is probable 

 that "birds of the year" never get the deep chestnut band in its 

 completely uniform state. 



The double-banded doterel frequents inland districts and is 

 common at the Salt Pans on the Mona Vale Estate from March 

 until July, and perhaps later. Wing in adult males 5*0 to 5-2 

 inches. 



50. H^MATOPUS LONGIROSTEIS, Vieillot. 



51. H^MATOPirs TJNicoLOR, Wagler. 



Both oyster-catchers met with, the White-breasted at the 

 Neck and near the Settlement, and the Black near the latter 

 place (L). 



aAvi^. 



52. Steena poliocerca, Gould 



A single example seen near Penguin Island (L). 



The so-called "Bass Straits" tern is common in the 

 Derwent from August until midsummer. It breeds down the 

 Channel and at the Little Aetseon Islands, but it is apparently 

 more abundant in the Straits than in the South, breeding on 



