BLACK-FRONTED DOTTEREL. 
Captain S. A. White writes : “I think these birds are more plentiful in 
South Austraha than in any other state I have visited. They prefer the 
shores of lakes, dams, and waterholes, even the banks of rivers, to the sea 
coast. In years gone by they bred regularly at the Reedbeds and I have 
often found their eggs, which were deposited on the bare sand.” 
Mr. J. W. MeUor sends me the following account from South Australia : 
“ This bird does not go in flocks, and is generally seen in pairs or singly ; 
usually it dehghts to frequent the mud swamps of where fresh water rivers 
overflow, where it runs with great rapidity along the edge of the water, 
feeding on small insects both aquatic and those on the land. Its peculiar 
action of bobbing its head down and tail up and vice versa is characteristic 
of the species, making a plaintive httle note like ‘ chick chick ’ the while, 
and when frightened it will fly off making a loud harsh note uttered in a 
sharp frightened fashion ; its note is often heard at night, especially if it be 
moonlight, as it is also nocturnal, and often as I have been waiting on the 
swamp edge, the little bird has flown past my gun barrel and settled quite 
close to me, uttering its little plaintive note of ‘ chick, chick.’ The eggs are 
generally three to a clutch, and can always be detected from any other 
dottrel’s eggs by the thin shell and the finely-sprinkled spots aU over the 
surface ; they are laid just above high-water mark in the sand or earth near 
fresh-water swamps ; they are very hard indeed to get, owing to the birds 
leaving them directly danger approaches, and the eggs being near short grass 
and finely spotted, they are exactly the same as the surrounding patch. The 
birds will nearly always feign a broken wing or leg, and carry on in a 
remarkable manner if you are too near the nest, faUing down as if they had 
been shot to pieces, and letting the intruder get almost within a distance of 
capturing them, when they pull themselves together in a moment, and fly 
a few yards away only, and repeat the performance until you are quite away 
from their breeding spot. I have seen them at the Reedbeds, South Australia, 
where the River Torrens empties itself and swamps the land, also on the 
River Murray, South Australia, and in the Lakes Alexandrina and Albert 
district, also far inland and where they can find a pool of water sufficiently 
large to keep them going in food and drink.” 
“ This species is not uncommon on the Herbert River (Queensland) and 
is found dispersed over the whole of the eastern and southern portions of 
Australia, even venturing far inland. I have met with it high up on the Bogan 
and Bell Rivers and on the Murrumbidgee River near Yass ; it gives 
preference to the margins of inland lakes and lagoons, rather than the sea 
coast . . . There was always a difficulty in discovering the eggs, from their 
similarity to the adjacent ground on which they were laid, it being necessary 
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