KUNGL. SV. VET. AKADEMIENS HANDLINGAR. BAND 52. N:o |7. 45 
lower part of the fore-neck and the parts below. Belly and throat whitish. The colour 
of the eve light grey. 
Breeding-season. — Nestling found !/12, juvenal shot the '”/s. The egg-laying 
consequently in Nov. 
Heceological. — I found the stone plover breeding partly at Mowla Downs, 
partly at Sunday Island. It was even seen at Derby (April 1911)... At Sunday 
Island it lived in a small valley among the mountains, rather a long way from the 
sea. This place was one of the most barren ones on the island. As night approached, 
the birds flew to the shore. Shortly after sunset we often heard their shrill scream 
in the camp. It was repeated at short intervals, several birds crying at the same 
time. It sounded ghastly in the stillness of the night, and the natives, who showed 
a superstitious awe, put the fires out and hurried in terror into their huts. The 
newly-shot juvenal had a peculiar and unusually strong smell, coming from the cloaca. 
The nestling I found among the Spinifex-grass. When I discovered it, it was 
running on the sand. Suddenly it stopped, but did not erouch towards the ground 
but only sank down on the tarsi, taking up a very curious position. The neck 
stretched obliquely upward in a slight curve and even the body was stretched a little: 
In this stiff position it remained without moving, so that I had enough time to observe 
and photograph it. 
At the moment when the bird stopped I observed its remarkable ornamenta- 
tion. It was those peculiar white and black bands running lengthwise on the neck, 
which were now most conspicuous. As the bird stood there on the sand, I could 
very well at a hurried glance have imagined it to be a lizard. The stripes of the 
neck entered without any incurvation into the dark and light streaks of the back. 
The ornamentation of the whole upper side seemed elongated on account of this, and 
the streakiness made the bird strikingly like a reptile, a resemblance that was also 
increased by the birds position. (Se Plate 4, fig. 6.) 
Such streakiness, usual in earlier times, is still to be found in some other nest- 
lings of birds belonging to different orders. Its purpose or meaning is mysterious. 
Here an attempt to explain it. In consequence of the observation mentioned above, 
and of which some idea may be obtained from the figure, I have reason to suggest 
the hypothesis that the stripes here serve as pseudaposematic colouration (>»protec- 
tive mimicry>»). In a country, where lizards and snakes are as common as in Au- 
stralia, this coloration of a nestling, by which it imitates the frequently occuring 
ornamentation of a reptile, gives it an evident advantage in the struggle against its 
enemies. 
The nestling had eaten small lizards and beetles. 
Orthorhamphus magnirostris VIEILL. 
Math. handl. n:r 191. 
One specimen was shot by a negro at Sunday Island ?'/2» 1911. 
