292 CHARADRIIFORMES : CHIONIDIDAE chap. 



occupies the Auckland, Snares, Chatham, and Antipodes Islands, 

 and has visited New Zealand. G. stenura, the Pin-tailed Snipe, 

 with twenty-six rectrices, the eight outer of which on each side 

 are stiff and attenuated, breeds from the Yenesei to the Pacific, 

 and winters in the Indian Eegion ; G. megala, with twelve of its 

 twenty tail-feathers narrowed, inhabits East Siberia and passes 

 through Japan to China, the Philippines, Borneo, and the Moluccas 

 in winter. G. {Limnocryptcs) gallinula, the Jack Snipe, found in 

 Britain from autumn to spring, breeds from Scandinavia to Siberia, 

 and migrates to ISTorth Africa, the Indian Eegion, and Japan. The 

 upper parts show a greenish and purple gloss, while it has only 

 twelve rectrices. Like G. major, it frequents drier spots than the 

 Common Snipe, and rises without a sound in the shooting season, 

 the flight being butterfly -like ; the habits in summer are similar to 

 those of the last-named species, and the eggs even larger for its size. 



Of the so-called Painted Snipes the female of Uhyncliaea or 

 Bostratula capensis has a brown head with chestnut cheeks and 

 collar, a brownish-green back with blackish freckling, scattered 

 golden-buff ocelli and streaks on the upper parts, a black fore-neck, 

 a white under surface and ring round the eye. The male is duller, 

 without the chestnut tints. This species inhabits the whole Ethio- 

 pian and most of the Indian Eegion, as well as Egypt, Arabia, 

 and Japan ; the larger H. australis, with only a chestnut patch 

 on the nape, occupies Australia. It. semicollaris of Chili and 

 Patagonia, which visits Peru and Brazil, shews no cliestnut collar, 

 but has black upper wing-coverts with round white spots ; the 

 sexes being alike. In mature females of the Old World forms 

 the trachea extends in a loop or loops over the furcula, or even 

 over the pectoral muscles.^ The habits of these birds are Snipe- 

 like, but the flight is slower, and the hen's note purring ; the whitish 

 eggs with plentiful black spots are somewhat Plover-like, while It. 

 semicollaris apparently lays only two. The Indian species is said 

 to hiss at intruders, with its wings and tail expanded into a disc. 



The short-winged Phegornis mitchelli, which lacks a hallux, is 

 brown above, and white with very close dusky bars below ; the 

 head is black, save for a white band which surrounds the occiput ; 

 while a neck-collar is formed by a fine orange patch behind and a 

 white area in front. It inhabits the Andes from Peru to Chili. 



Fam. II. Chionididae. — This group — with Dromas — possibly 

 1 Wood- Mason. P. >?..S'. 1878, pp. 745-751 ; Go\M, Birds of Australia,!!. 1865, p. 275. 



