662 CHARADRIimE. 



Scolopax holmetii, Peale, U.S. Expl. Exped. p. 229 (1848 : Auckland'. 



Is.).| 

 CsBnocorypha aucklandica, Gray, Cat. Gen. 8f Subgen. B. p. 119 



(1855) ; Bp. C. R. xliii. p. 579 (1856). 

 Scolopax aucklandica, Cass. U.S. Expl. Exped. p. 311 (1858) ; 



Seebohm, Ibis, 1886, p. 130, pt. ; id. Geogr. Bistr. Charadr. p. 472,. 



pt. (1888). 

 Gallinago tristrami, Rothschild, Bull. Brit. Orn. Club, iii. no. xiii. 



p. xii (1893 : Antipodes Island) ; Butter, Trans. N. Z. Inst, xxvii. 



p. 113 (1895). 



Adult (type of species). General colour above sandy brown, 

 mottled ■with dark brown streaks on the hind-neck, and with sub- 

 terminal heart-shaped black spots on the mantle and scapulars, 

 the latter having pale sandy-buff margins, which form indistinct 

 lines down each side of the back; wing-coverts nearly uniform 

 reddish brown, with dull sandy margins, and slight indications of 

 sub-terminal blackish or dark brown spots, more distinct on the 

 inner greater coverts and innermost secondaries ; bastard-wing, 

 primary-coverts, and quills uniform dusky brown, with narrow 

 whitish fringes at the tips, the first primary not paler along the 

 outer web, the inner secondaries reddish brown towards the ends 

 and freckled with dusky ; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts 

 sandy rufous, with scarcely any dusky mottling ; tail-feathers 

 dusky brown, with slight indications of narrow rufous bars near 

 the ends of the centre ones ; the outer feathers very narrow, dusky 

 brown, slightly rufescent along the outer web and whitish along the 

 inner one, which shows slight traces of dusky barring ; crown of 

 head nearly uniform dark brown, the lateral bands on the crown 

 very broad and slightly tinged with rufous, and the palo central 

 streak very ill-defined ; lores and sides of face and throat dull 

 isabelline, the sides of the face spotted with dark brown ; from the 

 base of the bill to the eye a narrow streak of reddish brown, and 

 another passing diagonally across the cheeks and ear-coverts ; 

 remainder of under surface of body isabelline buff, the lower throat 

 and fore-neck streaked with rufous, which takes the form of horse- 

 shoe markings on the chest and sides of the body ; under wing- 

 coverts greyish white with dusky bases, the lower primary-coverts 

 and quill-lining uniform dusky brown ; axillaries barred with 

 greyish white and dull brown. Total length 8 - 5 inches, culmen 

 2-35, wing 4-2, tail 1-4, tarsus 1*1. 



Young. Appears to differ from the adults only in having the 

 upper breast and the sides of the body more minutely spotted with 

 dusky brown, instead of having horseshoe-shaped markings. The 

 wing-coverts are also much more distinctly spotted with blackish. 



Mr. Walter Rothschild has kindly allowed me to examine his 

 large series of the Auckland Island Snipes and their allies. I find 

 that the type of his G. tristrami, from Antipodes Island, is a 

 rufous specimen of the true Auckland Island form, though at first 

 sight it looks very distinct. Sinco he first described the species, 

 however, Mr. Rothschild has received several more specimens from 

 Antipodes Island, and he now agrees with me that G. tristrami- 

 cannot be separated specifically from G. aucklandica. 



