GRALLATORES. 273 



This unusual visit may be due to the long drought in many 

 parts of Australia, especially as several other casual visitors 

 have this winter made their appearance, viz. Night-Herons, 

 Egrets, Maned Geese, &c." 



Captain Sturt informs us that this Snipe is common in 

 South Australia, but scarce in the interior of the country ; 

 that it breeds in great numbers in the valley of Mypunga, but 

 is only to be found in those localities where the ground is 

 constantly soft. 



Gilbert mentions that the Port Essington bird is only an 

 occasional visitor to the Coburg Peninsula, arriving about the 

 middle of November, when the rainy season commences, and 

 disappearing again in a few weeks ; during its short stay it 

 inhabits swampy but open grassy meadows : he adds, that he 

 never saw more than six or eight at a time, and always found 

 them very wild. 



The stomachs of those examined were muscular, and con- 

 tained small aquatic insects and sand. 



The sexes are so similar in colour that a separate descrip- 

 tion is not requisite. 



Crown of the head deep brownish black, divided down the 

 centre by a line of buff; face and chin buffy white; sides of 

 the neck, breast, and flanks washed with pale reddish brown, 

 and mottled with irregular spots of deep brown, which in- 

 crease in size, until on the flanks they assume the form of 

 irregular bars; back dark brownish black, the scapularies 

 mottled with deep sandy bufl", and broadly margined on 

 their external webs with pale buff"; wing-coverts dark 

 brown, largely tipped with pale buff"; wings dark brown, 

 all the feathers slightly fringed with white at the extremity ; 

 lengthened flank-feathers regularly barred with brown and 

 white ; centre of the abdomen white ; under tail-coverts buff*, 

 barred with dark brown ; four central tail-feathers blackish 

 brown, crossed near the tip by a broad band of rufous, beyond 

 which is a narrow irregular line of brown, and the tip white ; 



VOL. II. T 



