EASTERN RED-NECKED AVOCET. 
Mr. Edwin Ashby found this species in large flocks in parts of South Australia, 
and also shot it at Black Springs, South of Burra, at Christmas time. 
Mr. J. W. Mellor writes : “ These birds are generally known as Barking 
Snipe, on account of the pecuhar barking note they utter while flying, and 
when in a small mob flying over at night, one would imagine that a company 
of small dogs was approaching. They are also called ‘ ladies,’ on account of 
the graceful, slender, awl-hke bill they possess, and with this they probe in 
the mud and slush, and secure their food, which consists of small insects, etc., 
found in these swampy situations, they will wade leg deep in the water, and often 
float if the water gets too deep, and cross over any narrow calm arm of the 
swamps. I have seen them at the Reed-beds near Adelaide, but have not 
known them to breed there. While on a trip to Lake Albert in October, 1894, 
I saw flocks of these birds numbering some hundreds. They kept to the 
shallows, and flew up and away at my approach ; they were not breeding, but 
I gained from an authentic source that in the previous spring, September and 
October, some of the birds had nested in the middle of a shallow swamp there 
{Lake Albert] making their nests on httle heaps of stiff grass that grew a foot 
out of the water, laying 3 or 4 eggs of unusually large size for so small a bird. 
I am informed that the birds bred again in the same locahty on a more recent 
occasion, but the advance of civihsation is fast driving them away, as they 
are shot at and destroyed. They breed in the interior on the shallow lakes 
in wet seasons.” 
“ This bird is very local in its habits, and never seems to be very plentiful 
in any part of the Continent ; it is met with occasionally in large flocks ; and 
... it sometimes is met with on the Lower Herbert [River, Queensland]. 
One or two were observed during my visit ; but I failed to obtain any 
specimens.”* 
“ I have only seen it twice [in Richmond District, North Queensland], 
in December, 1902, and in February, 1903, a single bird each time, feeding 
along the water’s edge. On following it up on one of the occasions for further 
observation, it took to deep water and swam to the other side, and on my 
going round it swam back again. ’’f 
When Latham wrote up the General Synopsis of Birds, he confused 
Dampier’s account with that of the American Avocet, and of course in this he 
was followed by Gmelin, who referred in part to this species when he described 
his Recurvirostra americana. This misuse was due to the fact that the American 
bird had the head, neck, shoulders and upper-breast of a fawn colour, whereas 
the Australian bird was described as having a red head and neck but was 
* Ramsay, Proc. Zool. Soc. (Lond.) 1877, p. 338. 
f Berney, Emu, Vol. VI., p. 113, 1907. 
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