306 
CHARADKIAD/E. 
Rivers Districts, New South Wales, Interior, Victoria and Soutli 
Australia, West and South-West Australia. (Ramsay ) 
iEGIALITIS RTJPICAPILLUS, Temminck. 
Red-capped Dotterel. 
Gould, Ilandbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. ii., sp. 510, p. 235. 
This species differs from the preceding one in preferring the 
bays and inlets of the coast, and adjacent salt-water marshes, 
although its eggs have been procured in the interior of New 
South Wales. During a period of ten years, I have very 
frequently taken the eggs of this species in the vicinity of 
Melbourne. The Albert Park and the stretches of the then sandy 
wastes of Middle Park, near St. Kilda, were favourite breeding 
places of tills bird. The nest in the former place consisted merely 
of a slight depression in the ground, lined with a few short pieces 
of dried grass, and small fresh-water shells ; in the latter place 
the eggs were simply deposited on the sand, with a few small 
pebbles placed around them to keep them from rolling away. 
Eggs two or three in number for a sitting, usually the former, 
varying considerably in their shape and markings. 
A set in the Australian Museum Collection, procured in 
1878, are ovate in form, of a light stone colour, blotched all 
over with small irregular shaped brownish-black markings. 
Length (A) 1-22 x 09 inch; (B) 1-22 x 0-87 inch. Taken at 
Albert Park, October, 1877. 
Two other specimens are pyriform in shape, of a light 
cream colour, heavily blotched and sparingly lined with blackish 
markings, a few dots appearing as if beneath the surface of the 
shell. Length (A) 1-25 x 0-87 inch; (B) 1-26 x 0-88 inch ; 
others again have a faint greenish-tinge in the ground colour 
and the markings confined to the larger end, in some instances 
assuming the form of a zone. 
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