GENUS SQUATAROLA (Cuvier.) 



1 1 E 1 1 E is I 'iii 



Australia. It differs from Charadrius in having a small hind toe. 



SQUATAKOLA HELVETICA (Gould). 



GREY PLOVER. Genus i Squatarola. 



SPECIMENS of this bird collected in different quarters of the globe prove them to he identical. So, 

 when (ioiild noticed that the Australian representative lacked the rich black colouring of the under 

 surfaces which is so conspicuous a feature in all other Grey Plovers during the breeding season, he concluded 

 that it was only the young birds whose migratory instincts led them so far. 



This Plover affects the sea-coast rather than inland districts, and may be found on low muddy 

 shores, and at the mouths of large rivers. Its food consists of worms, insects and their larvse. 



Mr. J. A. Campbell tells us, in his "Oology of Australian Birds," that — "Until about three 

 years ago the breeding haunts of the Grey Plover remained undiscovered. In a letter from Mr. Ernest 

 Gibson, Buenos Ayres (who, by the way, is performing work of lasting interest in working up notes of 

 the birds ot his adopted country), informs me that an intimate friend of his, Mr. Harvie-Brosvn, together 

 with Mr. Seebohm, were the first to take eggs of the Grey Plover on the shores of the Arctic Ocean at 

 the mouth of the Petchora River." 



The egg is a "greyish or yellowish-stone colour, blotched and clouded boldly on the larger half, 

 and chiefly round the end, with irregular-edged blotches of blackish-sepia, running mostly in a longitudinal 

 direction ; the markings are smaller near the minor end, and beneath the dark colouring are smears and 

 traces of bluish-grey. In shape some eggs are rather pointed and others slightly rounded at the small end. 

 Average length, 2 inches f-line ; breadth, 1 inch 5 lines." (Legge.) 



Crown of the head, upper surface, and wings, light olive, mottled with white ; primaries, blackish- 

 brown, with the basal portion of their inner webs and the apical half of their shafts, white ; rum}), white : 

 tail, white, crossed by broad bars of light olive ; face, and all under surface, white, with numerous brown 

 stripes and a wash of buff on the sides of the neck and across the breast ; irides, blackish-brown ; bill 

 and feet, blackish-olive. [Gould.) 



Habitats : Richmond and Clarence River Districts, New South Wales, Victoria and South 

 Australia, Tasmania, West and South West Australia, South Coast of New Guinea. (Ramsay.) 



GENUS EUDROMIAS (Boie). 



N contradistinction to the last, this is a genus of inland Plovers, of which two species are known, namely, 

 the E. Morincllus of Europe, and the E. Australia of Australia. 



