306 OHAEADEIAD^E. 



Rivers Districts, New South Wales, Interior, Yictoria and South 

 Australia, West and South- West Australia. {Bamsay ) 



^GIALITIS RUFICAPILLUS, Temminck. 



Eed-ceipped Dotterel. 



Gould, HandhTe. Bds. Aust., Vol. ii., sp. 510, p. 235. XITT 6, 



This species diflfers from the preceding one in preferring the 

 bays and inlets of the coast, and adjacent salt-water marshes, 

 although its eggs have been procured in the interior of New 

 South Wales. During a period of ten years, I have very 

 frequentlyi taken the eggs of this species in the vicinity of 

 Melbourne. The Albert Park and the stretches of the then sandy 

 wastes of Middle Park, near St. Kilda, were favourite breeding 

 places of this bird. The nest in the former place consisted merely 

 of a slight depression in the ground, lined with a few short pieces 

 of dried grass, and small fresh-water shells ; in the latter place 

 the eggs were simply deposited on the sand, with a few small 

 pebbles placed around them to keep them from rolling away. 

 Eggs two or three in number for a sitting, usually the former, 

 varying considerably in' their shape and markings. 



A set in the Australian Museum Collection, procured in 

 1878, are ovate in form, of a light stone colour, blotched all 

 over with small irregular shaped brownish-black markings. 

 Length (A) 1-22 x 0-9 inch; (B) 122 x 0-87 inch. Taken at 

 Albert Park, October, 1877. 



Two' other specimens are pyriform in shape, of a light 

 cream colour, heavily blotched and sparingly lined with blackish 

 markings, a few dots appearing as if beneath the surface of the 

 shell. Length (A) 1-25 x 0'87 inch; (B) 1-26 x 0-88 inch ; 

 others again have a faint greenish-tinge in the ground colour 

 and the markings confined to the larger end, in some instances 

 assuming the form of a zone, 

 T-a 



