EECURVIROSTEA. 
309 
Specimens taken by the late Mr. W. Liscombe at Wilcannia, 
in October 1883. measure as follows: — length (A) 1-25 x 0'93 
inch; (B) 1-27 x 095 inch ; (C) 1-28 x 0-95 inch. 
I [ah. Derby, N.W. Australia, Port Darwiii and Port Essington, 
Cape York, Wide Bay District, Richmond and Clarence Rivers 
Districts, New South Wales, Interior. (Ramsay ) 
Sub-Family HIMANTOPODINJE. 
Genus RECUItVIROSTRA, Linnceus. 
RECURVIROSTRA RUBRICOLLIS, Temminck. 
Red-neclced Avocet. 
Gould, Handbk. Bds. Aust., Vol. ii., sp. 519, p. 249. 
“ Mr. lv. H. Bennett informs me that this species lays four 
eggs for a sitting, and breeds during tin 1 months of September to 
December, laying its eggs on the bare ground without making 
any nest, and sometimes close to the water’s edge. The present 
specimens were found among the herbage usually growing about 
the sheep tanks in the interior of the country, and were taken in 
the Lachlan district; the ground colour varies from light stone 
colour to creamy-yellow, some of the former tint have a faint 
olive-green shade, some are heavily blotched towards the thicker 
end, others sparingly covered with spots, dots, and freckles of 
dark umber-brown and black, with a few obsolete spots of slate- 
grey. A set measures as follows: — length (A) 2 x P4 inches; (B) 
l - 35 x 095 inch; (C) 1*4 x 095 inch; (D) 1*3 x 095 inch. 
From Mr. Bennett’s Collection.” ( Ramsay , P.L.S., If.S.W., Yol. 
vii., p. 411.) 
During 1887 Mr. Bennett found these birds breeding in large 
colonies on the margin of a lake in the interior of New South 
Wales. 
