ORIENTAL DOTTEREL. 
Adult male. Entire back, wings, and tail olive-brown, all the feathers narrowly fringed 
with rufous ; bastard-wing, primary coverts and quills dark brown, the latter 
with pale inner webs, the outer primary has a w'hite shaft ; secondaries somewhat 
paler than the primaries and fringed with white, the long innermost secondaries 
like the back ; all the tail-feathers tipped with white, outer feathers much paler, 
the outermost pair entirely white on the outer webs ; collar on the nape and eye- 
streak pale brown ; fore-part of crown white intermixed with oKve-brown ; ear- 
coverts more or less stained with pale rufous or buff ; forehead and lores pale buff ; 
throat, buffy-white ; patch below the eye, middle of the abdomen, flanks, and 
under tail-coverts white ; fore-neck chestnut, extending on to the sides of the breast 
followed by a black patch on the middle of the breast, which also extends down the 
sides of the upper-abdomen, where the feathers are tipped with white ; under wing- 
coverts and axiUaries ohve-brown, the former tipped with grey ; bill black, lower 
base hom-colour ; iris hazel ; feet light flesh-colour ; joints almost black. Total 
length 245 mm. ; culmen 25, wing 170, tail 62, tarsus 49. 
Adult male, in winter-plumage. Differs chiefly from the male in summer-dress by the 
almost entire absence of chestnut and black on the fore-neck, chest, and sides of 
breast. 
Young female. Ohve-brown above, the feathers everywhere margined with rufous which 
are paler and almost pure white on the median and greater wing-coverts ; forehead 
and eyebrow white ; throat whitish, more or less tinged with rufous, which is more 
pronounced on the fore-neck and chest ; abdomen and under tail-coverts white. 
Immature female. Distinguished from the adult chiefly by the absence of the chestnut 
on the fore-neck and the broad rufous margins to the feathers of the upper-surface ; 
the chestnut collar on the fore-neck of the adult is here represented by a grey band 
with a few rufous feathers intermixed, which shows that the bird is attaining the 
breeding-plumage . 
Nest and eggs. Unknown. Breeds in South-east Mongoha (Prjevalsky). 
Mr. J. P. Rogers, writing from Derby, North-west Australia, says : “ These 
birds are rare here, a few stray near my camp, but are very wild. I have 
never seen this species on the sea beach j it is always on the plains or open 
bush country. When at Wyndham, in 1908, I saw a large flock on the 7th 
of October. About 200 birds -scattered over two acres, a few under each bush, 
at 4 o’clock p.m. The day was very .warm.” 
Mr. Tom Carter writes : “ The native name is Boolgarra-Boolgarra. 
This was a common summer visitor at Point Cloates, arriving very regularly 
about the second week in September and leaving about the middle of March. 
They were mostly seen feeding in flocks on the samphire salt marshes or on 
the open spinifex and grass flats near the beach, not often visiting the beach 
to feed. WTien heavy North-east gales of wind blew, with a parching dry 
heat, they would come on the beach, apparently for the sake of coolness, and 
would stand there motionless in long hnes. On December 30th and 31st, 
1895, we had a heat wave, the shade temperature being 118 degrees on those 
two days, and above 112 degrees for several days. Extraordinary numbers 
of these birds lined the beach for several miles north of Point Cloates. On 
the 15th of March, 1902, I noticed flocks of these birds congregated on the 
VOL. m. 
105 
