DOUBLE-BANDED DOTTEREL. 
of its arrival it is mostly in young plumage, or with the adult bands in an 
imperfect state, which seem to indicate that there is a change of colouring 
after breeding. The dress is, however, so variable, that unless a large series 
of specimens are got together, shot at all times of the year, the change could 
not properly be worked out. 
“ The plumage of the young bird in April is as follows : Head, hind neck, 
back and wings, earthy brown, the feathers of the back with narrow rufescent 
edgings ; the scapulars and wing-coverts more conspicuously edged than in the 
adult ; forehead whitish grading into the brown of the head ; throat and 
under surface white tinged with buff more or less beneath the ear-coverts ; 
a more or less incomplete brown band across the upper part of the chest, in 
some only a brown wash ; legs and feet dark ohve-green. As time goes on 
the brown pectoral band becomes darker, and in Maj^^ blackish feathers, tipped 
with white are acquired ; at the same time the surface feathers of the lower band 
begin to appear and may be found lying beneath the white plumage. In June 
specimens are procurable with the black band showing a want of uniformity 
on account of the feathers being pale tipped here and there, and the rufous 
band the same owing to the white tippings. At the end of July, by a change 
in the feathers the bands become uniform and well defined. During this time 
the forehead bar and the loral stripe extending beneath the eye and down the 
neck to the band, have been developing and becoming black. An examination 
of a large number of specimens has led to this diagnosis which I think in the 
main will be found correct, but it is probable that ‘birds of the year’ never 
get the deep chestnut band in its completely uniform state. 
“ The double-banded dottrel frequents inland districts and is common 
at the Salt Pans on the Mona Vale Estate from March until. July and perhaps 
later. Wing in adult males 5.0 to 5.2 inches.” \ 
Mr. A. J. North* reports : “ Common about Como ; Botany Swamps, 
and the flats at the mouth of Cook’s River (N.S.W.) during April, May and 
June ... all the examples I have seen . . . were in winter plumage.” 
Potts| writes : “ Our banded Dotterel is worthy of belonging to the 
family of the Charadriae, for it is one of the most restless and wariest of birds, 
during the breeding-season. On the appearance of an intruder, it flies round 
and round, uttering its note of warning, then alighting on some rising ground, 
it steadily keept watch. During the time it remains on the look out, it indulges 
in a peculiar habit of jerking its head backwards and forwards, uttering its 
monotonous twit, twit, at intervals. 
* Birds County CiLmberl., p. 110, 1898. 
f Trans. New Zeal. Inst. 1869, Vol. II., p. 67, 1870. 
VOL. III. 
89 
