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Show 600 MR. E. P. RAMSAY ON THE STILT-PLOVER. [May 23, ECHIOTHRIX LEUCURA. Fur dark grey brown, varied with black-tipped hairs on the back and sides; sides of nose, cheeks, throat, chest, and underside of limbs white; feet moderate, covered above with dark-brown hair; tail yellow, black at the base; cutting-teeth white ; whiskers long, black, rather rigid. Length of body and head 9\ inches; tail imperfect; hind feet about 2 inches. Hab. Australia; British Museum, male? Tail imperfect. 4. Note on the Eggs of the Australian Stilt-Plover (Himantopus leucocephalus). By E. P. R A M S A Y , C.M.Z.S. As nothing seems to have been published upon the nidification of this fine species, I beg leave to offer a few remarks upon the subject. The Stilted Plover must be considered rather a scarce than a rare bird in New South Wales, its visits being few and far between. When it does come, however, which is usually in some very dry or remarkably wet season, it appears in great numbers and in all stages of plumage. In 1865 large flocks arrived, in company with the Straw-necked and White Ibises (Geronticus spinicollis and Threskiornis strictipennis), and took up their abode in the lagoons and swamps in the neighbourhood of Grafton, on the Clarence River, where, on m y visit to that district in September last (1866) all three species were still enjoying themselves. A few days previously to m y arrival in Grafton, a black in the employ of Mr. J. Macgillivray, and a very intelligent collector, discovered a nest of this species containing four eggs, which have been secured for our collection. The nest was a slight structure, consisting merely of a few short pieces of rushes and grass, placed in and around a depression at the foot of a clump of rushes growing near the water's edge of a lagoon in the neighbourhood of South Grafton. The eggs vary slightly in form, two being pyriform, the other two rather long. The ground-colour is of a yellowish olive or light yellowish brown, lighter when freshly taken-in some sparingly, in others thickly blotched and spotted with umber and black, the black spots running together and forming large patches on the thick ends. Length from 1-^y inch to 1 Y\- inch; breadth 1^ inch to 1£ inch. The immature birds have the top and back of the head, back of the neck, and shoulders grey, which parts become black, interspersed with white feathers, before finally reaching the plumage of the adult. |