THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Mr. Tom Caeter writes : “ Only once came under my observation and that 
was on July 8th, 1902, when I saw a pair of birds, new to me, while 
driving along the great open plains between Lyndon and Minilya Rivers 
in Mid-west Australia. I promptly left the buggy, and shot them, when 
they proved to be male and female, and were undoubtedly breeding near. 
However, a careful search failed to reveal the eggs, although I saw other birds 
close roimd me.” 
“ At the first lagoon we passed on approaching the Fitzroy River [in 
North-west Australia] a number of these birds were seen running near the 
margin of the water. When alarmed, they rose quickly, their long pointed 
wings enabling them to travel a great distance in a very short time. 
Although on several occasions three or four birds were disturbed near together, 
each went off by itself, either on to the open plain or some other part of the 
lagoon. On our return along the course of the river to Derby they were 
frequently disturbed some distance from the water. They were never seen 
in flocks.”* 
“ They were feeding among the samphires growing on the margin of an 
arm of the largest lagoon in Lake Violet [Mid-west Australia]. Four days 
later, and some two miles away, I came across a flock of quite twenty. 
Under the circumstances I felt quite Justified in dissecting a single bird to 
ascertain as near as possible the probable date of their breeding. I judged 
I must wait fully three weeks before I could expect eggs. I determined, 
therefore, to keep watch, without disturbing them more than was absolutely 
necessarj^ On 19th August I was on the same samphire flat again, and 
after searching it carefully I saw a single bird running away to the left in 
a rather suspicious and suggestive manner. If I stood stiU she would halt 
too and watch me. On my moving to the point from which she appeared 
to have run, she tripped a little further away always keeping an eye on me. 
Feeling sure I W8is near the nest, I made a mark and commenced a systematic 
search round it. She halted on a little eminence and watched me silently; 
After a quarter of an hour’s patient hunting, to my great delight, I caught 
sight of the three brown eggs half covered with flakes of sun-baked clay. 
Had they been entirely covered I might easily have missed them, so closely 
did they assimilate to the dark ferruginous soil on which they lay. The black 
markings on these eggs being small render them much less conspicuous than 
the more boldly marked eggs of other allied species. The nest was a very 
shallow depression probably scratched out by the parent bird, and had no 
lining of any kind whatever, the flakes of mud being probably added after 
the eggs were laid. Surrounding the nest were a few pieces of white quartz 
* Keartland, Trans. Roy. Soc. South Austr,, Vol. XXII., p. 186, 1898. 
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