302 
CHAR ADRIAD^E. 
performed during the months of August and September, the eggs 
which are two or three in number, being laid in a hollow on the 
bare ground at the edge of a flat adjoining a salt-marsh ; they are 
of a dull olive-yellow, dashed all over with spots and markings of 
blackish-brown and dark olive-brown, particularly at the larger 
end ; they are one inch and five-eights long by one inch and three 
sixteenths broad, somewhat pointed at the smaller end.” {Gould, 
Ilandbk. Bds. Aust., Yol. ii., p. 220.) 
Hab. Derby, N.\V. Australia, Port Darwin and Port Essington, 
Gulf of Carpentaria, Cape York. (Ramsay.) 
Genus SARCIOPIIORUS, Strickland. 
SARCIOPIIORUS PECTORALIS, Cuvier. 
Black-breasted Plover. 
Gould, Ilandbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. ii., sp. 502, p. 222. 
“ The habits and actions of this pretty species closely resemble 
those of the Spur-winged Plover ; it breeds during August and 
three following months, laying its eggs on the bare ground in 
places similar to those chosen by L. lobatus, but is more local, and 
frequents drier tracts of country. I have frequently met with 
flocks in the ploughed fields, where they would be found sitting 
down and basking in the sun, or in a long string in the shade of 
a fence. In their flight they dilfer greatly from their ally, and 
are seldom heard except when flushed or separated. At night 
they separate and spread about over the fields in search of food. 
The eggs of this species are four in number, 1-7 inch in length by 
1-2 in breadth. Some specimens vary to the extent of a tenth 
either way. The ground-colour is a light olive-brown, tinged with 
yellowish- or greenish-olive, spotted with brown and grey, which 
latter appears beneath the surface of the shell. In some the spots 
incline to reddish-brown, and are equally dispersed over the whole 
surface ; in others the markings are crowded on the larger end.” 
(Ramsay, Ibis, 1867, Vol. iii., New Series, p. 420, pi. ix., fig. 3.) 
