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 Region; 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. (Limnocryptes) gallinula, the Jack Snipe, found in 
Britain from autumn to spring, breeds from Scandinavia to Siberia, 
and migrates to North Africa, the Indian Region, 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 fight 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 Rhynchaea or 
Rostratula 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 Region, as well as Egypt, Arabia, 
and Japan; the larger &. australis, with only a chestnut patch 
on the nape, occupies Australia. &. semicollaris of Chili and 
Patagonia, which visits Peru and Brazil, shews no chestnut collaz, 
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 
egos with plentiful black spots are somewhat Plover-like, while #. 
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. Z.S. 1878, pp. 745-751 ; Gould, Birds of Australia, ii. 1865, p. 275. 
