In appearance it is an attractive, sprightly little bird with most confiding manners. In its actions 

 and manners it is very peculiar, having the stooping carriage of the Dottrel and the quick, bobbing 

 motion of the head and tail of the Sandpiper. 



The sexes are alike. 



" Head, ear coverts, back of the neck, and chest, black ; a small patch under the eye, throat, 

 chest, sides of the neck, centre of the abdomen, and under tail coverts, white, the latter spotted with dark 

 brown ; back centre of the wings and tertiaries, olive, tinged with bronzy -brown ; tips of the secondaries 

 and the inner webs of the tips of the six contiguous primaries, white ; rump and two middle tail feathers, 

 olive, the remaining tail feathers white ; flanks, chestnut ; irides, nearly black, with a narrow black eyelash ; 

 bill, pulpy, pink-red at the base, black at the tip ; thigh, knee, and for a quarter of an inch down the 

 tarsus, pink-red ; the remainder of the tarsus and the toes, lively bluish-lead color." — (Gould.) 



Habitats : Derby (N.W.A.), Gulf of Carpentaria, Richmond and Clarence River Districts, New 

 South Wales, Interior, Victoria, and South Australia. 



