THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
on the eggs, to make the immediate locahty appear more Hke the surrounding 
ground, and so hide the appearance of the eggs. Next day I proceeded to the 
locahty, and with field-glasses watched the birds, but in spite of keeping the 
place in view all the time, the female managed to get up without the exact 
spot being marked, and my brother and I spent at least an hour searching 
the ground over before we could find the eggs again, so similar was the nest 
and eggs to the surrounding open earth and short grass. The eggs were just 
hatching, so I did not take them, but took a photo in situ, and next day the 
young were out and gone, and the two parent birds kept about for some time 
and httle later they aU departed. I have also seen these birds on Lakes 
Alexandria and Albert, and the Coorong, South Austraha. They also hke 
the marshy mouths of the rivers where they empty into the sea. Their food 
consists of small insects and crustaceons, etc., which they secure in the soft 
mud by probing their long slender biU down until their head also is lost to 
view. Probably they breed extensively on the shallow lakes of the interior, 
as I have received broken off shells from these places which correspond 
with those of this bird. Their dog-hke little bark can be heard at night as 
they fly over, sounding like a lot of terrier dogs flying through mid air and is 
very weird.” 
Mr. Frank Howe sent me the following : “At Mumble (a huge tank about 
miles from the homestead at Kow Plains, Victoria) I saw about sixteen 
birds. They were feeding in the water at a depth of about eight inches. 
When wading they present a most peculiar appearance, lifting the legs fairly 
high out of the water, and with the head and neck sunk into the shoulders. 
The call note is not unhke the bark of a dog. The legs were of a pink colour, 
irides red, and the bill was black.” 
“ While on the wing they continually uttered a plaintive piping cry, as 
if of distress, but which they seldom emitted when on the ground.”* 
“ Along the margins of these lagoons [of North-eastern Victoria] or in 
patches where the water on subsiding leaves tiny mud islets, there are found 
the eggs of the White-headed Stilt, the owners of which fly round excitedly, 
uttering their pecuhar puppy-hke cry, and finally alight a httle way off, 
standing in water as deep as their long legs wiU aUow.”t 
“ These beautiful birds have just finished breeding in a swamp near 
Laverton, the first eggs being laid early in October. This is probably the 
first authentic record for Victoria. The nests which were about 10 to 15 feet 
apart were in the middle of a fairly large swamp, and were placed on clumps 
of the dwarf salt marsh plant, Salicornia australis, Sea-Crab Grass. They were^ 
* Gould, Handb. Birds Austr., Vol. II., p. 247, 1865. 
f Campbell, Emu, Vol. II., p. 17, 1902. 
