4 
Chick. Covered with soft down of a bright sandy yellow on the upper surface, changing to yellowish white on 
the underparts; the crown of the head and the back prettily mottled and varied with dark brown, of which 
there is also a broad streak on the wings and thighs. 
This pretty little Dottrel is very common on our shores, and is frequently met with also at a consider- 
able distance inland. It associates in flocks, and is always to be found on the ocean-beach, or on the 
dry sands and grassy plains in the vicinity of the coast ; but I have also observed it on the Onetapu 
desert, in the interior of the North Island, and it is very commonly met with on the pastures several 
miles fiom the sea. It has been recorded from Lord Howe’s Island ; and Mr. Konald Gunn states 
that it is plentifully dispersed along the northern shores of Tasmania ; but Mr. Gould saw it only 
once in Australia, when, as he informs us, considerable numbers visited a common in the neighbour- 
hood of George lown, and appeared to be acting under some migratory impulse; for, after remaining 
a day or two, they suddenly disappeared. This occurred about the 15th of May, the middle of the 
Australian winter; and the flights consisted of birds of various ages and in difierent states of plumage. 
It is more active in its habits than the preceding species, running swiftly over the sands, and 
stopping at short intervals to bob its head and utter a rather plaintive note. It rises in the air with 
a very rapid movement of its wings, and usually adopts a circular course, the whole flock wheeling 
simultaneously and descending to the ground in an oblique direction. 
It is hard to kill, often flying a considerable distance after being mortally hit with pigeon-shot. 
On taking a wounded bird into my hand I felt almost a sense of remorse at taking its life, the 
lustrous brown eyes of my little victim having a peculiarly soft and tender expression. 
In the high sandy flats near the sea-shore where the bright pingao grass mixes with the wild 
sage, this bird may always be met with in the breeding-season, which commences as early as August ; 
and so perfect an adept is it in the art of deception that I have been decoyed away from its nest and 
young when, as afterwards discovered, they were at my very feet. In the location of the nest itself 
there is very little attempt at concealment, the bird apparently trusting more for protection to the 
assimilative colouring ; but after the young are hatched out, the old birds (and particularly the 
female) manifest considerable solicitude for the safety of their offspring, and feign lameness or a 
damaged wing for alluring intruders away, a device which very often succeeds. The young bird runs 
the moment it quits the shell, and is not slow to second its parent in the art of self-preservation. Its 
sandy colouring makes it almost indistinguishable when squatting on the ground, and it has the 
instinct to remain perfectly motionless the moment it hears the note of alarm, even allowing itself to 
be handled without betraying a sign of vitality. 
I he eggs are generally three in number, broadly oval in form, measuring I’3 inch in length by 
1 in bieadth, and are of a dark grey colour, much speckled and mottled with brown. The numerous 
examples in the Canterbury Museum exhibit some variety in their colouring ; they are of different 
shades of brownish grey, inclining in some to greenish grey, spotted and pencilled or marked all over, 
but especially at the larger end, with brownish black. The specimens vary not only in the tone of 
the ground-colour, but also in the form and extent of the markings, some being very handsomely 
pencilled and spotted, whilst others have a dark or blotched appearance, particularly at the larger end. 
I once discovered a nest of this species in a grass paddock at Manawatu, several miles from the 
sea-shore ; and on my taking up one of the chicks, the old birds flew round me in circles and gave 
vent to their anxiety in a rapid clicking note, in which both of them joined. This was on the 22nd 
of December, and the young birds appeared to have only just emerged from the shell. 
I sketched this nestling, although I did not preserve the specimen, and my drawing is 
reproduced in the woodcut on p. 15. 
