XLIY. 



GENUS ESACUS (L esson). 



rpHIS genus is confined to two known species, one of which inhabits India and the other Australia. 

 J- It is nearly allied to CEdicnemus, though each performs very different functions in nature's economy. 

 The Esacus has a bill adapted for seeking its food on oozy mud banks and flat sea shores, while the 

 CEdicnemus has a bill intended to capture the slugs and worms, &c, found on dry grassy hills. 



ESACUS MAGNIROSTKIS (Gould.) 



LARGE-BILLED SHORE PLOVER, Genus: Esacus. 



nnHIS is a purely tropical bird, being found only in North and North- Western Australia and New 

 Guinea. With such a restricted and inaccessible locality it may be easily conceived that details as 

 to its habits and economy are still to be recorded. For the present we must be content to know that 

 this Large-billed Shore Plover is an inhabitant of low, sandy shores, where crabs and molluscs are 

 abundant. At night it is said to utter a loud cry not unlike its native name, " Wee-lo." Singularly 

 enough this is the name given to the Southern Stone Plover of Western Australia by natives of other 

 tribes who are unacquainted with this Plover — another proof of the resemblance between the two 

 genera. 



The sexes are so generally alike that no distinct description is necessary, and the young of the 

 first autumn are only distinguishable by the feathers being margined with grey. 



The ground colour of the egg is "creamy-white, streaked and marked all over with dark olive- 

 brown, some of the markings being large and bold without assuming any regular form ; and others mere 

 blotches about the eighth of an inch in diameter, while many of the streaks were as fine as a hair, 

 and are of a crooked or zig-zag form, two inches and a half long by one inch and three-quarters 

 broad." 



" Above and below the eye a broad mark of white, which is continued down the side of the head, 

 the eye and the white marks being surrounded by a large patch of dark blackish-brown ; at the angle of 

 the lower mandible is a small patch of blackish-brown ; throat and sides of the face, dull white ; head and 

 all upper surfaces, light brown, the feathers of the head and neck with a narrow line of dark brown 

 down the centre ; lesser wing-coverts, dark brown, the last row crossed with white near the tip, forming 

 a line along the wing, remainder of the coverts grey, deepening into brown on the tertiaries ; first three 

 primaries, dark brown at the base and tip, and white in the centre, the remainder white, stained with 

 brown near the tip ; tail grey, crossed with white, near the tip, which is dark brown ; forepart of the 

 neck like the head, but paler ; breast, brownish-grey ; abdomen and under tail coverts, buffy-white ; hides, 

 pale yellow ; eyelids, primrose-yellow ; base of the bill, sulphur-yellow, which colour is continued along 

 the sides of the upper mandible above the nostrils ; remainder of the bill black ; tibia?, lemon-yellow ; 

 tarsi and feet, wine-yellow, the upper edge of the scales of the toes lead colour." (Gould.) 



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

 South Coast of New Guinea. (Ramsay.) 



