824 NESTS AXD EGGS OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



I corresponded vdth Mr. Owston for three years, till at length he 

 wrote : " I am the pi-oud possessor of the eggs of Scolopax (Gulliiuiya) 

 australix. I have had extraordiuaiy trouble and expense to obtain 

 them. The birds breed on the gi'assy moorlands at the foot of Fujiyama 

 at an elevation of 2,000 to 3,000 feet above the sea. Fujiyama is 

 12,500 feet high. I watched them on the 28th April (1897), and on 

 other dates dvu-ing the breeding season. When alanncd they fly round 

 high overhead, circling generally against the siui, and every now and 

 again they cry ' chip, chip, cheo, che-cheo,' and then rush downward at 

 the intruder, beating the air in their descent and making a tenific 

 iiishing noise. When the weather is foggy and they come close down 

 the noise is so startling that it is some time before a nervous person can 

 get accustomed to it. Heard in the distance it may be easily mistaken 

 for the hard breathing of a railway engine climbing a. mountain gradient. 

 They make about two or tlu-ee downward dives dunng each circuit." 



The handsome clutch of eggs I am indebted to Mr. Owston for was 

 accompanied by the following data: — "363. Scohipax. austral is. Nest 

 on ground, among grass. Harasatomura, Gotemba. 17th May, 1897. 

 Contained four eggs." I may mention that Mr. Owston endeavoured 

 to snare with bird-lime one of tlie jjarents of the first nest he found, but 

 only succeeded in pulling a few feathers out of the bird. The following 

 day he netted another bird and caught a young one by hand. 



The Snipe has been obsei-ved in Japan from April to August. When 

 they take their great southward flight, as soon as Australia is reached 

 some probably land, others go south-west, but the bulk of migi-ation 

 continues down the eastern portion of the Continent to Tasmania, the 

 southern limit.* 



My record (assisted by Mr. P. N. Jenkins, fish salesman, &c., Swanston 

 Street, who generally exhibits the first bird shot) for the last twelve 

 years of the annual aiTival of the advance guards of Snipes in the 

 vicinity of Melbourne is as follows : — 



"1889, 5th or 6th September; 1890, 3rd September; 1891, end 

 iiugust; 1892, middle Augxi-st : 1893, 30th August; 1894, 1st Sep- 

 tember; 1895, 22nd Augiist ; 1896, 4th August; 1897, 27th Julv:t 

 1898, 26th August; 1899, 18th August; 1900, 29th August." 



For an early arrival the 1897 date is a " record." I thought that bird 

 might have been maimed, or had remained dm'ing winter in Australia, 

 but I ascertained that several birds about that time or soon after were 

 .seen in the same locality, which was Heatherton, between Cheltenham 

 and Dandenong. 



By September and October the majority of the Snipes have arrived, 

 and may be found in favoured swampy sitviations, feeding on worms and 

 aquatic insects. When flu.shed the Snipe utters a prolonged " scrape- 

 scrape," and, not being of extraordinarily rapid flight, offers a good 

 mark to a sportsman. A brace of birds in good condition should tui'ii 

 the scale at 11 ozs. 



• There is a recent occurrence of a binl in New Zealand, ride Trans N.Z. Inst., 

 xxxi., p. 105. 



t About this extraordinarily early dale three birds were shot at Mellon, 

 Tasmania. 



