KnvNCH.t;A. 299 



Mr. S. Robinson wrote me as follows from Ijurrenbilla Station, Cunnamulla, central 

 Southern yueensland : — " The Painted Snipe comes here very regularly early in October, and 

 commences to breed almost at once, and after rearing their young they leave about the end of 

 February. On the 24th December, 1908, having shot at a Black Duck (Anas superciliosa) li 

 fell near the margin of a swamp. On going to pick it up I flushed a Painted Snipe from a 

 a Cotton-bush, and on lifting up the branches found the nest containing four thickly mud- 

 besmeared eggs. Subsequently I washed and blew them, and found they were a rather lightly 

 marked set ; the eggs were perfectly fresh." 



Mr. Kobt. Grant has handed me the following note: — " During all the years I have been 

 collecting in various parts of New South Wales and Queensland, I do not think I have secured 

 more than six specimens of RliYiiclura austi'dis. On one occasion, when shooting Emu W'rens 

 on the margin of a swamp between Wallerewang and Wolgan Gap, on the Blue Mountains, 

 the road to the latter locality crossing through the swamp, my brother going through some long 

 grass on the other side flushed a Painted Snipe, which flew towards me and settled on the top 

 of a two-rail fence, not more than twenty yards away. I fired and brought it down with a 

 charge of No. 10 shot, and found it to be a fine old male in perfect plumage. We afterwards 

 searched a great part of the swamp for the female, but did not succeed in meeting with it. I 

 have also siiot these birds in the Mudgee District, on the Castlereagh River, and at I3udda 

 Lake, near Trangie." 



The late Mr. K. H. Bennett, while resident at Mossgiel, South-western New South Wales, 

 wrote as follows in 1886: — " Rhyncluea amtyalis is a spring and summer visitant to this locality 

 in good seasons, and during its stay breeds usually in October. The nest is a slight depression 

 in the moist soil, close to the water's edge, and mostly lined with Eiualvptus leaves. 



From Melbourne, Victoria, Mr. G. A. Iveartland sent me the following notes in June, iqi i : ^ 

 " The Painted Snipe (Rliynclura anstmlis) is generally found singly or in pairs, and occasionally 

 resorts in greater numbers to a common breeding place. I once saw twenty-five of their eggs, 

 which a lad found in one day at Lake Mologa, and a clutch of four beautiful eggs was found 

 at Kerang, \'ictoria. I shot a female with eggs well developed in the ovaries, during August, 

 iSgo, whilst camped on Brookman Creek, North-western Australia." 



The nest is usually built near the margin of a swamp or watercourse, and is a shallow 

 depression on the ground lined with leaves, and frequently sheltered by the spreading branches 

 of some low bush. 



The eggs are usually four in number for a sitting, oval or elongate-oval in form, the 

 shell being comparatively close-grained, smooth and rather lustrous. They are of a creamy- 

 white or dull yellowish-stone ground colour, over which is distributed short thick black streaks, 

 and irregular-shaped spots and blotches, with which are intermingled a few spots of brown or 

 brownish-black, and smiilar underlying markings of dull inky-grey. As a rule the markings 

 are evenly dispersed over the shell, almost obscuring the ground colour, on some they are 

 confluent, and form in places large black patches, on others the markings are larger, and 

 predominate on the thicker end. All are conspicuously marked and handsome eggs, and may 

 easily be distinguished from those of any other member of the Australian Limicolae. A single 

 egg in the Australian Museum Collection, taken by Mr. F. Morrow on the 27th November, 

 187S, measures: — Length 1-38 x 1-04 inches. A set of four taken by Mr. K. H. Bennett 

 at Ivanhoe, in October, i886, measures: — Length (A) 1-4 x i inches; (B) 1-47 x o-gg inches; 

 (C) 1-4 x I inches.; (D) i-35 x i inches. Another set of four in the Collection measures as 

 follows: — Length (A) 1-31 x i inches; (B) 1-39 x o-g8 inches; (C) 1-37 x i inches; (D) 

 1-38 X o-g8 inches. A set of four taken by Mr. S. Robinson on the 24th December, 1908, on 

 Burrenbilla Station, Cunnamulla, Queensland, measures: — Length (A) 1-31 x 0-98 inches ; (B) 



