302 CHABADRIADJE. 



performed duriiig the months of August and September, the eggs 

 which are two or three in number, being laid in a hollow on the 

 bare ground at the edge of a flat adjoining a salt-marsh ; they are 

 of a dull olive-yellow, dashed all over with spots and markings of 

 blackish-brown and dark olive-brown, particularly at the larger 

 end ; they are one inch and five-eights long by one inch and three 

 sixteenths broad, somewhat pointed at the smaller end." (Gould, 

 Handbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. ii., p. 220.) 



Eah. Derby, N.W.Australia, Port Darwin and Port Essington, 

 Gulf of Carpentaria, Cape York. {Ramsay.) 



Genus SAECIOPHORUS, Strickland. 



SARCIOPHORUS PECTORALIS, Cuvier. 

 Black-breasted Plover. ♦ 

 Gould, ffandbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. ii., sp. 502, p. 222. 322" 6 



" The habits and actions of this pretty species closely resemble 

 those of the Spur-winged Plover ; it breeds during August and 

 three following months, laying its eggs on the bare ground in 

 places similar to those chosen by L. lohatus, but is more local, and 

 frequents drier tracts of country. I have frequently met with 

 flocks in the ploughed fields, where they would be found sitting 

 down and basking in the sun, or in a long string in the shade of 

 a fence. In their flight they differ greatly from their ally, and 

 are seldom heard except when flushed or separated. At night 

 they separate and spread about over the fields in search of food. 

 The eggs of this species are four in number, 1 •? inch in length by 

 1-2 in breadth. Some specimens vary to the extent of a tenth 

 either way. The ground-colour is a light olive-brown, tinged with 

 yellowish- or greenish-olive, spotted with brown and grey, which 

 latter appears beneath the surface of the shell. In some the spots 

 incline to reddish-brown, and are equally dispersed over the whole 

 surface ; in others the markings are crowded on the larger end." 

 (Ramsay, Ibis, 1867, Vol, iii., New Series, p. 420, pi. ix., tig. 3.) 



