THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Captain S. A. White says : “I have met with this bird on all the Australian 
Coast line and Islands of Bass Strait, Tasmania and Kangaroo Island. They 
congregate in small parties and are very timid and wary birds.” 
Mr. Edwin Ashby observed this species at Edithburgh, Yorke Peninsula, 
South Australia, in January, 1903. 
Mr. J. W. Mellor observes : “ This bird does not breed anywhere in 
Australia. They come down to South Australia in November and December 
and leave again in May and June. They wade in the mire of the rivers, and 
at the mouth of Port Adelaide river they are seen in smaU flocks of 6 or 8 on 
the open flats when the tide is out, but it is very difficult to get near them as 
they are extremely wary. They were observed on the Capricorn Islands of 
South Queensland in October, where they had apparently just arrived from 
their northern breeding-grounds and were going south.” 
Mr. Tom Carter sa3^s : “ The Curlew was a common bird along the North- 
west coast, arriving towards the end of September. Odd birds might be seen 
throughout the winter. In 1902 I observed large flocks at a big mangrove 
swamp near the North West Cape in July and again at the same place in 
August. These birds certainly never bred in the Arctics that year. The 
Curlew occurs all round the coast of Albany, but they are not nearly so numerous 
along the South-west coast as on the North-west. Most probably a question 
of food supply but wherever they are, they are always the same wary birds. 
I have observed them on many occasions perching in the branches of dead 
mangrove, usually at high tide, when their feeding-grounds are under water.” 
“ Very common during October, November and December [in New South 
Wales]. Frequents sandy-beaches, shallow inlets, and flats at the mouths 
of rivers. Plentiful at Botany Bay.”* 
Swinhoe,t who collected the type of “ rufescens,^’’ says : “ The single 
female specimen that I procured of this very rufescent species was shot on 
the sand-flat that divides the Tamsuy River, near its mouth. It had for 
some days been observed, in company with its mate, passing to and returning 
from its feeding-ground, the peculiar character of its long-drawn cry distin- 
guishing it at once from the large species that visit these shores during the 
winter, the note more resembfing the melancholy whistle of the Grey Plover. 
From the developed state of its ovary and the late season of the year when 
observed, I have little hesitation in stating that it is a resident species.” 
“ I have noticed the Curlews are always with us before August is quite 
gone, though they are not found in great numbers tiU towards the end of 
November, when thousands are to be seen at high tide perched upon the 
* North, B^rds County Gumberl., p. Ill, 1898. 
f Ibis 1863, p. 410. 
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