WHITE-HEADED STILT. 
composed principally of a dried alga, Lyngbya cesiuarii, with other aquatic 
plants, and measured approximately 8 inches across, being built up about 
9 inches above the water. Dead twigs of the Salicornia were placed on the 
tops of the nests. Several nests were placed on burnt clumps of the Awned 
Sword-Sedge, Gahnia trifda, about 12 inches above the water. Most of the 
nests contained four eggs, but one nest was discovered which contained five 
eggs. Most of the eggs were placed with the small ends pointing towards 
the middle of the nest, but in some instances several of the eggs had the small 
ends pointing outward. Unfortunately before all the eggs were hatched out 
the swamp commenced to dry up, and the old birds left the locality, causing 
a number of eggs and young birds to be deserted.”* 
“ This Stilt is a tall, slender, graceful bird, of proportions so delicate 
that the long legs would seem quite out of keeping with the small body, were 
not its carriage so easy and well poised that no incongruity is noticeable. 
The specimen I am showing you was shot on the big swamp at Altona, and 
was one of a flock of over 100. They are rather ugly, laboured fliers, sticking 
their long legs out behind, and making a tremendous row really all the time 
they are flying, the sound being comparable to a number of small dogs trying 
to bark whilst suffering from a severe cold in the vocal chords. Their food 
consists entirely of insects and small snails found on the water’s margin or 
captured by wading knee deep into the water. 
“Like many more Waders, the Stilts in their movements are governed 
largely by the seasons, and as ours [Eichmond District, Queensland] is notori- 
ously uncertain it is not surprising to find that it is as hkely to be one month 
as another when these birds are here. They cannot be relied upon for any 
month out of the twelve. They are seen in congregations of four or five up to 
forty or fifty. 
“ They, I have no doubt, occasionally nest in the district, though I have 
never found their eggs ; that they do not do so more often is due to our having 
such poor sites for the purpose, and the presence of sheep everywhere. I saw 
a pair in February, 1902, that I felt sure by their antics had eggs or young. 
In February, 1903, and again in the same month in 1905, I watched with 
glasses birds in immature plumage amongst a mob of old ones.”J 
The birds described are from New South Wales. 
The nomenclature and forms of this species do not offer much trouble. 
The species was first described by Gould and the synonymy is fairly clean. 
Bonaparte noted that someone had called it Himantopus novce-hollandice and 
* French, Viet. Nat., Vol. XXVIII., p. 182, 1912. 
t Bryant, Emu, Vol. V., p. 25, 1905. 
f Bemey, ib., Vol. VI., p. 113, 1907. 
