CHAEADBITJS. 



109 



Erythrogonys cinctus, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1837, p. 155. 

 Vanellus rufi venter, Lesson, L'Echo du Monde Savant, 1844, p. 207. 

 Vanellus cinctus [Gould), Schlegel, Mus. Pays-Bas, Cursores, p. 59 (1865). 



Synonymy. 



Plates. — Gould, Birds of Australia, vi. pi. 21. 



Habits. — Gould, Handb. Birds Austr. ii. p. 210. 



Eggs. — Campbell, Nests and Eggs of AustraUan Birds, p. 54. 



Literature. 



The Australian Four-toed Dotterel was originally described by Temminck (Cat. Syst. 

 Cab. d'Orn. pp. 172, 259) in 1807, as Le Vanneau Nain de la Nouvelle Galle Meridionale, 

 but it did not receive a Latin name until it was rediscovered by Gould, who called it the 

 Red-kneed Dotterel, and gave it the scientific name of Erythrogonys cinctus. Lesson 

 afterwards discovered that the genus was a hopelessly bad one, and that the new Australian 

 species belonged to the same genus as the South-American Dotterel, to which he had given 

 the same specific name. The Vanellus cinctus of Lesson, dating from 1826, though 

 superseded by Charadrius modestus of Lichtenstein, dating from 1823, nevertheless 

 supersedes Erythrogonys cinctus of Gould, dating only from 1837, so that Lesson was 

 obliged to rename Gould's species. 



It may always be recognized by the broad white tips of its secondaries and innermost 

 primaries. 



It is a summer visitor to South Australia, New South Wales, and Victoria, wintering 

 in Queensland. It is said to frequent the banks of lakes and rivers, and rarely if ever 

 to visit the coast, even in winter ; consequently it wears its conspicuous summer dress all 

 the year round. 



The broad white tips of the innermost primaries and of all the secondaries of this bird 

 are very remarkable. It is a common occurrence to find the pattern of the colour of the 

 primaries different from that of the secondaries, but the rule is that it suddenly changes at 

 the first secondary — in other words, the pattern of the colour is correlated with the structure. 

 The Australian Four-toed Dotterel is one of the comparatively few exceptions to this rule. 

 The white tips of the secondaries are continued on the five innermost primaries, but (as if 

 to protest against the apparent violation of the law) a slight change in the distribution of 

 the colours is made ; on the few outermost secondaries the amount of white is about the 

 same on both webs, but on the few innermost primaries which adjoin them there is more 

 white on the inner web than on the outer, so that after all the rule is not violated — pattern 

 of colour is correlated with structure. This law, which bears some analogy to the golden 

 rule in architecture that you may ornament construction but must not construct ornament, 

 is scarcely reconcilable with the theory of natural selection from fortuitous variations. As 

 Butler would say, if the quills got their white tips from the mere toss up of the dice, surely 

 the secondaries must have cheated a little ! 



Nomencla- 

 ture. 



Specific 

 characters. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



Correlation 

 of colour 

 with struc- 

 ture. 



