LEPTORHYNCHUS PECTORALIS, Dubus.

Body white; breast crossed by a broad band of chestnut bordered anteriorly with black ; wings and centre of the
abdomen black ; bill black ; legs reddish yellow.
Total length, 163 inches; bill, 22; wing, 8; tail 3; tarsi to the first articulation, 34; bare space above, 2.

Leptorhynchus pectoralis, Dubus, in Mem. Roy. Acad. Bruss. Aug., 1835, Pl. XLV. Guerin. Mag. Zool. 1836,
BEX.
Himantopus palmatus, Gould, Syn. Birds of Australia, Part II.

 

Srvce the publication of the Second Part of my Synopsis of the Birds of Australia, in which I gave a descrip-
tion and part figure of this species under the name of Himantopus palmatus, 1 have discovered that the bird
had been previously characterized as Leptorhynchus pectoralis by the Chevalier B. Dubus, in a memoir presented
to the Royal Academy of Brussels on the 17th of January, 1835. 1 have therefore taken the earliest opportu-
nity of correcting my own error, being anxious in every case to give the priority to any appropriate name already
published. During the time that has elapsed since the appearance of my description of this bird, I have had
an opportunity, through the kindness of Mr. Leadbeater, of examining two other examples, one of each sex,
upon a more minute inspection of which, and after carefully comparing them with specimens of both Hinan-
topus and Avocetta, 1 am led to coincide with M. Dubus in the propriety of separating it into a distinct genus :
my name will therefore sink into a synonym.

M. Dubus is of opinion that this form is more nearly allied in its affinities to 4vocetta than to Aumantopus,
to which opinion I am also disposed to agree ; the bill is altogether more slender than in Himantopus, is slightly
curved upward, depressed through its whole length, and has the groove of the nostrils less extensive; the
wings are not so long, and the secondaries are tipped with white; the tarsi and toes are much shorter and
the latter palmated. The principal characters in fact by which this form differs from Avocetia is in the total
absence of the hind toe and in the straightened form of the bill.

The adult female has the band on the chest greyish brown instead of chestnut, and is destitute of the black
mark on the centre of the abdomen; from the appearance of one of the specimens above alluded to, in which
the pectoral band was apparently disappearing, I think it probable that this mark is merely seasonal, or only
exists during the breeding season.

Habitat. The South coast of New Holland.

The Plate represents the bird of the natural size.