■aHmBBBSMHnSHWH^nHHHHiBHH 



Oeder CHAKADBIIFOBMES.] 



[Family CHABADBIIDiE. 



A N A ft H YN C H U S FRONTALIS. 



(WEY-BILLBD PLOVER.) 



Anarhynchus frontalis, Quoy et Gaim ; Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 9. 



By the Maoris this bird is called Ngutu-parore, in allusion to the peculiar formation of its bill. 



In the summer of 1895 I received a large number of specimens (in spirit) from Captain 

 Mair, who shot them on the extensive flats at the mouth of the Piako Eiver. Here they are to 

 be seen in thousands, and are so tame that you may knock them over with a stick. They 

 frequent the shallow fresh-water swamps, a mile or so from the shore, where they are busily 

 employed feeding on nahonaho, or midges, which affect the damp 



ground in 



countless 

 millions. 



Nestling. — In the Canterbury Museum there is a newly-hatched nestling of this species, in 

 which the bill is asymmetrical, as in the adult. The chick is covered with white and grey down, 

 with clouded dark markings on the back. 



Mr. A. T. Py croft writes to me from Helensville : "I have spent several days on the 

 Kaipara mud-flats, and I find the Wry-billed Plover, the Banded Dottrel, and the Black Oyster- 

 catcher plentiful. The Pied Stilt is also fairly plentiful. If I remember aright, you mention in 

 your ' Birds of New Zealand,' that this species is rarely found as far north as this, but the bird is 

 evidently increasing. A short time since a White Heron in splendid plumage, and with ample 

 dorsal plumes, was shot near the South Head by Mr. Wilson, of Parkhurst." 



HIMANTOPUS PICATITS 



(WHITE-HEADED STILT.) 



K>' ; 



DOM 





Himantopus leucocephalus {nee Gould), Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 21. 

 Himantopus picatus, Ellman, Zool., 1861, p. 7470. * 



In spite of its disproportionate length of leg, this Plover is graceful in all its movements, and Mr. 

 Keulemans has caught, very successfully, the beautiful poise of its body in the life-like portrait 

 which appears in vol. ii. It is a very pretty sight to watch a scattered flock of these birds feeding 



* So named by Mr. J. B. Ellman who, in 1861, communicated an article to the 'Zoologist' in which, with more 

 than commendable zeal, he imposed new latin names on nearly the whole of the New Zealand birds ! These names 

 have always been ignored by ornithologists, but by chance the present one comes into recognition, and it happens to be 

 appropriate. 



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