It runs with great swiftness, but delights more
in flying from one side of a pond to the other.
115. CHLADORHYNCHUS PECTORALIS.--The Banded Stilt.
This singular bird, with legs so admirably adapted by their length for
wading into the shallow lakes and sheets of water, near which it is
found, is in large flocks in the interior. It was in great numbers on
Lepson's Lake to the northward of Cooper's Creek, and on Strzelecki's
Creek was sitting on the water with other wild fowl making a singular
plaintive whistle. It is semipalmated, has black wings, and a band of
brown on the breast, but it is otherwise white. Its bill is long,
straight and slender, and its legs are naked for more than an inch and
half above the knee.
116. HIMANTOPUS LEUCOCEPHALUS, GOULD.--The white-headed Stilt.
The present bird is about the size of Chladorhynchus pectoralis, and in
plumage is nearly the same. This bird was not found in the distant
interior but in the shallow basin and round the salt lagoons of Lake
Torrens.
117. SCHOENICLUS AUSTRALIS.--Australian Sand-piper.
A bird very much resembling the British Dunlin. General plumage, grey
with a white breast. A quick runner, and fond of low damp situations as
well as open plains. Common on the banks of all rivers and lagoons.
118. SCOLOPAX AUSTRALIS, LATH.--Snipe.
Considerably larger than the Snipe of England.
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