19.S 



PEllIONO.MIII.E. 



preserved specimens of Pi'dioiioiniis iorqiiatus, received from Dr. \l. V. Ivamsay. has contributed a 

 very interesting paper detailing its anatomy and osteology, and from wliicli the following short 

 extracts are made : — ■ "It re\eals something, namely, that Pi\lioi!oiiiiis \s closely allied to the 

 Turnices, although not closely enough to include it in that group, unless the limits and the 

 definition of the group be considerably widened. IMoreover it connects the Turnices with the 

 Rasores, not directly, but through a number of characters which indicate the common descent 



of both from some less dillerentiated and less specialised Ualline-Limicoline stock 



Tin qiuiUty, not ilic quautilv, of thac ' tii\oiii>iuii charaiUri ' itfn;, I'cdicihniuts tc the Turuiccs as tJieiy 

 lowest most KaUfl-Gnlliihc- lUinilu-rs." 



In the field I'edionoiniii dillers much in liabits from the Turnices; it is solitary, ne\er occurs 

 in co\eys, and rarely more than a pair are seen together, except in the breeding season, when 

 accompanied by their young. Although the Turnices, especially when nesting, may almost be 

 stepped upon before resorting toUight, I ha\e never known of an instance, except when disabled, 

 of a 'funiix being caught with the hand after being set with a dog, anil this is frequently the case 



with Pedioiioiiiiis. To my mind, however, the 

 greatest variance between the two genera, apart 

 from their internal and external characters, is in 

 their eggs, the pyriform eggs of Fcdionoiiius being 

 of a true Limicoline type, closely resembling in 

 shape some \arieties of the eggs of the Punlin 



('ri'in^a iilpiiiaj and the Jack Snipe (GallinaL^o 

 lialluuda). As Ih'. (ladow has found that "Pedio- 

 iioinus is closely allied to the Turnices, altliouqli 

 not eloselv eiioii^li to iiuliide it In that gron/'," the 

 b'amily Tuknicid.k being the sole representative 

 of the Order Ilemipodii, I have here placed 

 Pediouonuii in a new Suborder, also uniquely 

 its own. The figure represents an adult female. 



The fittingly named Collared Plain-Wanderer 

 is a nomadic species mhabiting the South- 

 eastern portion of the Austialian continent, and 

 at various times it has occurred near Sydney, Melbourne and .\delaide. It is, however, more 

 abundantly distributed to the north of Melbourne than elsewhere, and it is also found, but in 

 lesser numbers, in favourable situations, in other parts of X'ictoria. My knowledge of its occurrence 

 in that State was first gained in [uly, \i>']>\ through Mr. Charles Gadd, the then Curator of the 

 Botanic Gardens, Bendigo, who gave me an egg, one of a set of four that he had taken in 

 December, 1875, at Pyramid Mill, just fifty miles to the north of that city. Subsequently, in 

 1880, its eggs were talcen near the Moonee Ponds Creek, within half a mile of our house, and 

 the birds appeared in tolerably large numbers on the fairly level grassed lands between Mari- 

 byrnong and Keilor, also at Essendon and Broadmeadows. It lives on seeds and insects, witfi 

 which is usually intermingled gravel or very small fragments of brol<en pebbles. 



In New South Wales the present species has been brought under my notice chiefly from 

 donations made from time to time to the Trustees of the Australian Museum. One of the oldest 

 specimens in the Collection is the skin of a male, the bird being shot at Newtown, near Sydney, 

 in 1863. From Goulburn an adult male and female were received from Mrs. Morrisett, in 

 August, 1889, Mr. .'\. M. N. Kose sent a specimen from Springfield in August, 1890, and a 

 young male from Mr. .\. A. Payten on the 7th May, iSgi. Mr. James K. Mill sent a young 

 female he had obtained twenty miles north of May, in Ri\'erina, in December, 1895. Mr. G. 



COLLARED PLAIN-WAN HHHER. 



* Rec. Austr. Mus , Vol. I., pp. 205-211 (1S91). 



