STONE-PLOVER. 
Captain S. A. White writes : “I have seen this bird in almost every place 
I have visited on the Australian coast, and at times it is very numerous on the 
sandy beaches to be found in many places of the Kangaroo Island Coast line ; 
it is a very elegant bird and nimble of foot, always tripping along the sand 
in a sprightly manner. They lay two eggs in a slight depression in the sand 
just above high-water mark.” 
Mr. J. W. Mellor sends me the following : “ Known as the Scrub 
Curlew; its mournful wail, resembling the word curlew, drawn out and 
produced in whistling manner, is extremely weird and mournful when heard 
on a still night in the lonely back-woods. The bird is both nocturnal and 
diurnal, its large eyes giving it the power to collect the rays of light, and see 
with comparative ease on the darkest night. It relies more upon its power 
of running than flight, and when disturbed in the daytime will make off at a 
smart pace through the scrub, taking to the wing if flushed hurriedly, but 
will not fly far before it again pitches and is off like lightning. It usually 
goes about in pairs, but occasionally several may be seen together, but this, 
I have noticed, is more often than not when it has its young ; these are able 
to make off as soon as hatched, when they are pretty little balls of grey fluff 
and down, and should danger come nigh, the little things will squat in an 
instant, and with outstretched necks lay motionless on the ground, their 
grey coloring so assimilating the surroundings that they are passed over 
unobserved by those looking for them. This is a characteristic of the old 
birds, and it seems to be born in the chicks, as they resort to this means of 
eluding their enemies as soon as they are out of the shell. I have these birds in 
semi-captivity at our place, ‘ Holmfirth,’ Fulham, South Australia, where 
I have been able to breed them and watch their peculiar habits ; they lay 
their two eggs on the bare ground, without any pretence at a nest, but the 
bird soon picks up little bits of sticks, leaves, and bits of dirt, etc., and places 
them promiscuously about the eggs, so that they are not noticeable unless 
closely examined. In the wild state I have seen them select a site fOr 
nesting, near a she oak {Casuarina) where the fallen seed cones lay about, 
and these did good service to prevent the eggs being seen too easily, and even 
in the open aviaries at ‘ Holmfirth,’ they will choose a place near a pine-tree, 
where there are a lot of seed cones laying around, with the object doubtless 
of protecting their eggs from the intruder ; the typical colour of the eggs is 
a light stone ground thickly sprinkled with spots and blotches and various 
markings of brown, some appearing as if beneath the surface of the shell, the 
markings being undefined at the edges, run off into the ground coloring to 
a great extent. The female of one pair of birds that had always laid eggs of 
a truly reddish coloration, exactly resembling the eggs of the Brown hawk. 
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