ZPHL-A-TIE XXXVIII. 



GENUS ^GIALITES (Bote). 



OF this genus Gould says : — " The Little King Dottrels — composing the genus JEgialiies, inhabit 

 both the Old and the New World. Two species at least are found in Europe and Asia and 

 three in Australia. They are rather dumpy little birds, with large heads, generally banded with 

 black, and have a gorget of the same hue on the chest ; their bills are short and pulpy, and are 

 generally yellow at the base, while their legs are fleshy and mostly of this color. The sexes are 

 alike in their markings, and the young attain their full plumage in the second year. 



M GIALITES MONACHA (Geoff.) 



HOODED DOTTREL. Genus ^Egialitbs. 



CiLOSELY allied t<> the Common Dottrel of Europe, the Hooded Dottrel yet differs from -it in one 

 ' essential habit — it is never found far inland. Upon the sea coast and in the coast district of 

 southern and temperate parts of Tasmania and Australia it is very abundant. Gould says of it : — 

 " I frequently found its two eggs on the shingly beach, in a slight depression hollowed out by the 

 bird for their reception just above high-water mark. These are so similar in appearance to the 

 material upon which they are deposited that they would readily escape the attention of a casual 

 observer. Those I collected were of a pale stone colour, sprinkled over with numerous small irregularly 

 shaped marks of brownish black, and are one inch and a half long by one inch and an eighth 

 broad." 



The sexes vary in plumage; the male having the head, which in the female is mottled white 

 on the ciown, and neck sooty black ; the face and throat are white, theatter margined at the back of 

 the neck by a narrow line of black. 



The young birds resemble their mothers, except that the feathers of the back and upper 

 surfaces are fringed with brownish -black. 



The male has the head, fore part of neck, and band across the upper part of the back, 

 sooty-black: back of neck and all under surfaces, white; back, shoulders and tertiaries, greyish-brown; 

 centre of the wing and the basal portion of the internal webs of the primaries and secondary, white, 

 the rest black ; the middle tail feathers, black ; the three next on each side, white at the base and 

 tip and black in the centre, the remaining feathers wholly white ; irides, yellowish or orange-brown : 

 eyelash, rich reddish-orange or scarlet ; bill, rich orange at the base, passing into yellow and black 

 at the tip; legs, flesh colour. {Gould). 



Habitats : Wide Bay Districts, Richmond and Clarence River Districts, New South Wales, 

 Victoria and South Australia, Tasmania, West and South-west Australia. 



