HILATICULA NIGRIFRONS.
Black-fronted Dottrel.

Charadrius nigrifrons, Cuy. in Mus. Paris.—Temm. Pl. Col., 47. fig. 1.—Wagl. Syst. Av., sp. 20.
———— melanops, Vieill., Nouy. Dict. d’Hist. Nat., tom. xxvii. p. 139.—Ib. Ency. Méth. Orn., Part I. p. 335.
pl. 233. fig. 3.
Avgualitis nigrifrons, Gould in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part IT.
Hiaticula nigrifrons, List of Birds in Brit. Mus. Coll., Part III. p. 71.

 

Tue temperate latitudes of Australia constitute the true habitat of this beautiful little Dottrel ; for so far as
I have been able to learn, it is never found in the northern part of that country, nor can Van Diemen’s Land
claim it as a part of its fauna: the climate of the latter country being less genial, and the seas which wash

its shores being too rough and boisterous for the abode of so delicate a bird as the Aiaticula nigrifrons.

ven in Australia the exposed sea-beaches seem to be avoided, and it is most frequently found in the
interior of the country, on the margins of pools and lakes, and in the most retired situations. It also
frequents the sides of rivers running into the heart of the country; I frequently encountered it while
descending the Namoi, on the lowest part of which river I was so fortunate as to discover its eggs. They
were deposited on th» ground beside the stream; they now grace my cabinet, and are esteemed as one
of my greatest rarities, and to which many pleasing associations are attached, connected with my visit to
the distant region in which they were procured.

The colonies of Swan River, South Australia and New South Wales are equally visited by this bird; and
its range appears to be general over those portions of Australia lying between the twenty-eighth and
thirty-seventh degrees of south latitude.

No member of the genus is more tame than the present; for as it trips nimbly along the sides of the
pools it will allow of a sufficiently near approach for the observer to see the colour of the eye, and the
brilliant ring of scarlet which encircles it; and when forced to take wing it merely flies to the opposite bank
or to a very short distance, and then alights again.

The two eggs above-mentioned so nearly resembled the surface of the sand-bank upon which they were
deposited, that it was by the merest chance they were not passed by unnoticed. In form they nearly
resemble the eggs of other Dottrels, being considerably pointed at the smaller end; they are one inch
and three-sixteenths long by three-quarters of an inch broad; of a pale stone or dirty white colour, very
numerously but minutely speckled with dark brown.

The sexes are precisely alike in the colouring of their plumage, and nearly so in size.

Forehead, a stripe commencing at the eye passing over the ear-coverts and round the back of the neck,
anda broad band crossing the chest and advancing somewhat down the centre of the breast, black ; a stripe
of white passes over each eye and continues round the back of the neck, separating the black band from
the crown, which with the back, the long tertials, and the middle of the wing, are brown: scapularies deep
chestnut ; tips of the greater coverts white, forming an obscure band across the wing; primaries black :
throat, abdomen and under tail-coverts white; two middle tail-feathers brown at the base and black at the

tip; the next three on each side white at the base, gradually passing into blackish brown, and largely

tipped with white, the remainder entirely white; bill rich orange at the base and black at the tip; feet
orange flesh-colour in some, in others pale flesh-colour ; irides dark brown ; eyelash bright red.

The young have a crescentic mark of a lighter colour on the feathers of the upper surface, and have the
colouring of the plumage and soft parts less brilliant and well-defined than the adults.

The Plate represents a male and a female of the natural size.