EKUDRO MIAS AU STRA LI S, Gould.

Australian Dottrel.

Eudromias 4ustralis. Gould in Proc. of Zool. HOoc., Part \ IT]. p: 174.

 

By the ornithologist, the bird forming the subject of the present memoir will be looked upon with the
greatest interest, as an additional species of a genus of which hitherto only a single example was known,
namely the Common Dottrel (Exdromias morinella) of the British Islands. Nothing can be more in-
teresting than to observe how beautifully many of the species of the limited groups of the northern
hemisphere are represented by others in Australia: for instance, the genera Himantopus, Avocetta, Glareola,
&c., of which a single species only of each has yet been discovered in either country. For my first knowledge
of this very rare bird I am indebted to the kindness of Captain Sturt, who forwarded me a young individual
from the high lands near the river Murray in South Australia. A fine adult has since been transmitted to
this country by His Excellency George Grey, Esq., Governor of South Australia, and is now in the British
Museum, to which Institution it was presented by that gentleman, together with many other rare birds. It
Is most gratifying to know, that Mr. Grey, in addition to his arduous duties as Governor, is devoting as much
of his attention as possible to natural history, the result of which will doubtless be, that many fine and in-
teresting productions will be brought to light which would otherwise have remained buried in obscurity.

Many years must probably elapse before anything is known of the habits and economy of the Australian
Dottrel ; for even those of its European ally, Eudromias morinella, are but little understood, in consequence
perhaps of its affecting localities far removed from the habitation of man; a trait in all probability equally
characteristic of the habits of the Australian bird.

Forehead and all the upper surface light sandy buff, the centres of the feathers being brown ; primaries
brownish black with sandy buff shafts, and all but the first four broadly margined with the same ; throat
buffy white, below which a crescent-shaped mark of blackish brown ; chest, flanks and under surface of the
wing buff, passing into reddish chestnut on the abdomen, beyond which the vent and under tail-coverts are
white; tail brownish black, the centre feather margined with buff, the outer ones with white ; bill dark
olive-brown ; feet yellowish brown.

The figures, which are of the natural size, represent the adult in two different positions, and the young in
the plumage of the first autumn.