GENUS ACTODROMAS (Kauf.). 



nnHIS is the generic name given fco the little Sandpipers of Europe, America, and Australia, of which 

 J- the Tringa minuta may be taken as the type. Only one representative is known to Australia. 



ACTODROMAS AUSTRAL IS (Gould). 



LITTLE SANDPIPJM. Genus: Actodromus. 



rillllS tiny bird is the exact representative of the Little Dunlia (Actodromas minutus) of Europe in 

 J- economy and habits. It affects low Hat shingly beaches, fringing deep bays and inlets of the sea; 

 salt-water estuaries and sand-spits at the points of small islands are its favourite resorts. As the tide 

 recedes this little Sandpiper may be seen tripping over the wet sands with extraordinary rapidity, in 

 search of those salt-water insects which form part of its food. 



Like others of the family, it undergoes seasonal changes of plumage ; in the winter the dress is 

 light, in the summer rufous and green tints appear. 



Gilbert, in his explorations, found it breeding on the Hoatmann's Abrolhos in December ; the 

 two eggs were deposited in a hollow which it had formed in the ridge of a black deposit and salt thrown 

 up by the ripple of the water, and left high and dry some four or five yards from the water's edge, 

 lie saw it again in large flocks around Portu and on Rottnest Island. He observed that it uttered a 

 weak piping cry while on the wing, and that its small muscular stomach was filled with tiny land and 

 water insects and shell-fish. About Port Essington he found it congregating in flocks of hundreds, perching 

 on the mangroves when the flood-tide covered the shores and beaches. 



All the upper surfaces striated and mottled with shade of brown or grey ; slight ferruginous 

 markings on the shoulders and throat ; primaries, blackish-brown, with white shafts ; wing coverts, tipped 

 with white ; ramp, upper tail coverts, and two centre tail feathers, blackish-brown ; tail, pale brownish- 

 white, with white shafts ; forehead and under surface, white ; sides of breast, mottled with dark brown, 

 and stained with rusty red in the centre ; irides, brownish black ; bill, blackish-brown ; tarsi and feet, 

 olive brown. In winter the plumage is paler and destitute of the ferruginous tints, while the spots on 

 the breast are much less marked. 



Habitats : Derby (X.W.A.), Port Essington and Port Darwin, Gulf of Carpentaria, Cape York, 

 Rockingham Bay, Wide Bay District, Richmond and Clarence River Districts, New South Wales, Victoria, 

 and South Australia, Tasmania, West and South -West Australia, South Coast of New Guinea. 



GENUS AUCYLOCHILUS (Kauf.). 



HE only species of this genus known is common alike to Europe, America, India, and Australia. 



