The Emu. 
43 
all these migrants further attention should be given to their 
varying times of arrival on our shores, and their subsequent dis- 
tribution or wandering throughout the various States ; and records 
of their occurrence in New Zealand, where some have not as yet 
been met with, will be highly interesting. Again, the internal 
distribution and migration of our purely Australian Limicolse 
is a point which demands our notice and study. Chief among 
these is our Dottrel, and next to it, as regards northern limits, 
the Double-banded Dottrel. 
Very interesting work in connection with the Waders will 
continue to be done, we may depend, along the vast stretch of 
coast line from about Dirk Hartog Island to Cambridge Gulf, 
in a portion of which Mr. T. Carter has already made many 
interesting discoveries. This north-western littoral region of our 
continent is a paradise for the observer of Waders : for it is 
here that so many species first make land, or push onward to 
after alighting on the north coast. Apparently it is here, too, 
where the immature of several well-known species manifest the 
singular propensity alread}- alluded to in my "Birds of Ceylon"* 
of foregoing their return journey to northern climes and remain- 
ing with us throughout the \ ear. 
Species which will occur under these conditions, and which 
have already been recorded from the district in question, will be 
the Turnstone, the Sanderling, Eastern Stint, Curlew Stint, ar.d 
the Golden Plover. This habit forms another problem for solu- 
tion in connection with the migratory instinct, about which we 
know so little. 
Turning now to the sea birds, I recommend for investigation 
and discovery, as regards their distribution and breeding, certain 
of our Terns, such as Gygis Candida, Proalsferna cinerea. Sterna 
melanaiicJicn, S. media, and the Ternltts S. nereis and S. placejis, 
which have mostly a northern distribution as far as Australia is 
concerned. It is worth}' of passing remark that members of 
this family and the allied Skuas ( Stercoranidce ) are apt to be 
overlooked somewhat strangeh', one instance as regards our 
waters being Richardson's Skua. This was the first bird I 
noticed in Port Phillip Harbour when I arrived in 1883, and 
also at the same time in the Derwent, to which it is an 
annual visitor after Christmas. 
Again, the Tubinares, so well represented in Australian 
seas, will no doubt furnish material for many interesting notices 
and articles in TJie Emu. Of the several species of Petrel 
whose eggs and breeding habits are still undiscovered, some no 
doubt will be found to nest within the limits of the Aus- 
tralasian region or contiguous to it, for it is not unlikely that 
Kerguelen Island, which has already rendered to science many 
oological discoveries, may be the breeding place of the Black- 
bellied Storm Petrel, while on the north-eastern islets of the 
* 7'riiiga subarqtiata, p. 879. 
