.KiilALOlMIIU S lUTirAIMLLUS (Oonid). 



RED-CAPPED DOTTREL (Jkms : ^(jialophilus. 



rill I IS little Dottrel] is the smallest of the Plowr tribe, and, like all small creatures, is much more numerous 

 J- than the larger species. It is universally distributed over the Australian continent, both inland 

 and on the coast, though it shows a decided preference for the latter. Indeed in Western Australia it is 

 never found inland, a peculiarity in exact opposition to the Hooded Dottrel, which is never found on the 

 coast. Shingly ocean beaches, where it finds a plentiful supply of the small mollusca upon which it subsists, 

 are the localities it prefers. 



Usually seen in pairs, it is nevertheless occasionally met with in small companies. 



The period of incubation extends from September over the three following months, and the eggs 

 are laid variously anions the shingle, or on a sandy beach sufficiently above high-water mark to escape 

 wetting. Sometimes a slight depression in the sand is a sufficient shelter, at others a small mound of sand 

 and seaweed is impressed into the service of the primitive nest-builders. The eggs are of a pale stone 

 color, sprinkled all over with small irregular blotches of brownish-black, and measure f 1 /., inches long by 

 7 /s <'f an inch wide. 



The parent birds are peculiarly jealous of their eggs or young being discovered, and like the 

 Tringas have recourse to all manner of tricks and subterfuges to decoy the intruder from the sacred spot. 

 They simulate the agonies of death, moving along with one leg dragging brokenly behind, and if followed 

 make ineffectual attempts to fly, as though a wing were broken, and so turn the unwelcome visitor in a 

 different direction, and the eggs remain undiscovered. 



The sexes are alike, except that the lines are paler in the female, and the marks about the face 

 are light brown instead of black. 



Crown of head, nape, and back of the neck, rich rusty-brown ; all upper surfaces and wings, light 

 brown, each feather slightly tipped with stone yellow ; primaries, blackish-brown, with shafts and extreme 

 edge of the inner webs white; four central tail feathers, dark brown, the remainder white; forehead and 

 all under surfaces, white, warming into dove color ; above the forehead, a line of black, diminishing at the 

 corners of the eye ; from the angle of the mouth to the eye, a line of black, which is continued behind 

 the eye down the neck. 



Habitats : Port Darwin, Port Essington, Gulf of Carpentaria, Cape York, Rockingham Bay, 

 Port Denison, Wide Bay District, Richmond and Clarence River Districts, New South Wales, Interior, 

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

 New Zealand. 



OCHTHODKOMUS BICINTUS (Gould). 



A LLIED DOTTREL. Genus : Och thodkomus. 



THIS bird is evidently one of vagrant tendencies, for, though it is generally dispersed over the 

 colonies, no one locality can claim to be its special habitation. Large flocks will visit and remain 

 in a neighbourhood for a few days, and then decani]) as suddenly as they came, giving little opportunity 

 for investigation. Gould met with them at Georgetown, in Tasmania, and was led to assign a different 

 habit to them from the truer types of the genus. It associates in large flocks, and prefers meadow- 

 lands to sea-beaches, and probably breeds inland ; but of its incubation nothing is yet known. 



