HIATICULA NIGRIFRONS. 
Black-fronted Dottrel. 
Charadrius nigrifrons, Cuv. in Mus. Paris. — Temm. PL Col., 47. fig. 1. — Wagl. Syst. Av., sp. 20. 
melanops, VieilL, Nouv. Diet. d’Hist. Nat., tom. xxvii. p. 139. — Ib. Ency. Meth. Orn., Part I. p. 335. 
pi. 233. fig. 3. 
jEgialitis nigrifrons, Gould in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part II. 
Hiaticula nigrifrons, List of Birds in Bi’it. Mus. Coll., Part III. p. 71. 
The temperate latitudes of Australia eonstitute the true habitat of this beautiful little Dottrel ; for so far as 
I have been able to learn, it is never found in the northern part of that country, nor can Van Diemen’s Land 
claim it as a part of its fauna ; the climate of the latter country being less genial, and the seas which wash 
its shores being too rough and boisterous for the abode of so delicate a bird as the Hiaticula nigrifrons. 
Even in Australia the exposed sea-beaches seem to be avoided, and it is most frequently found in the 
interior of the country, on the margins of pools and lakes, and in the most retired situations. It also 
frequents the sides of rivers running into the heart of the country ; I frequently encountered it while 
descending the Namoi, on the lowest part of which river I was so fortunate as to discover its eggs. They 
were deposited on th ^ ground beside the stream ; they now grace my cabinet, and are esteemed as one 
of my greatest rarities, and to which many pleasing associations are attached, connected with my visit to 
the distant region in which they were procured. 
The colonies of Swan River, South Australia and New South Wales are equally visited by this bird ; and 
its range appears to be general over those portions of Australia lying between the twenty-eighth and 
thirty-seventh degrees of south latitude. 
No member of the genus is more tame than the present ; for as it trips nimbly along the sides of the 
' pools it will allow of a sufficiently near approach for the observer to see the colour of the eye, and the 
brilliant ring of scarlet which encircles it; and when forced to take wing it merely flies to the opposite bank 
or to a very short distance, and then alights again. 
The two eggs above-mentioned so nearly resembled the surface of the sand-bank upon which they were 
deposited, that it was by the merest chance they were not passed by unnoticed. In form they nearly 
resemble the eggs of other Dottrels, being considerably pointed at the smaller end ; they are one Inch 
and three-sixteenths long by three-quarters of an inch broad ; of a pale stone or dirty white colour, very 
numerously but minutely speckled with dark brown. 
The sexes are precisely alike in the colouring of their plumage, and nearly so in size. 
Forehead, a stripe commencing at the eye passing over the ear-coverts and round the hack of the neck, 
and a broad band crossing the chest and advancing somewhat down the centre of the breast, black ; a stripe 
of white passes over each eye and continues round the back of the neck, separating the black band from 
the crown, which with the back, the long tertials, and the middle of the wing, are brown ; scapularies deep 
chestnut; tips of the greater coverts white, forming an obscure hand across the wing ; primaries black; 
throat, abdomen and under tail-coverts white ; two middle tail-feathers bi'own at the base and black at the 
tip ; the next three on each side white at the base, gradually passing into blackish brown, and largely 
tipped with white, the remainder entirely white ; bill rich orange at the base and black at the tip ; feet 
orange flesh-colour In some, in others pale flesh-colour ; irides dark brown ; eyelash bright red. 
The young have a crescentic mark of a lighter colour on the feathers of the upper surface, and have the 
colouring of the plumage and soft parts less brilliant and well-defined than the adults. 
The Plate represents a male and a female of the natural size. 
