118 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Adult male-—Head, neck all round, back, and scapulars brown, with dark shaft- 
lines to the feathers of the head and hind-neck; lesser upper wing-coverts dark 
brown ; median coverts banded with white, which shows a narrow wing-bar, the 
small coverts round the bend of the wing and greater coverts pale grey, outside edge 
of wing white; bastard-wing and primary-coverts dark brown; primary-quills 
also dark brown with white on the inner webs, the outer primary white on the outer 
web towards the tip, the second one mottled only with white, the third, fourth, and 
fifth have no white on the outer web, the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth entirely 
white except a smal] patch of brown on the outer web of the sixth near the tip ; 
secondaries white, obliquely banded with brown, the long innermost secondaries 
like the back ; tail-feathers brown banded with white, the white band preceded by 
a dark narrow cross line ; lores, sides of crown, and a line under the eye black like 
the sides of the nape and lower cheeks ; a white line above and below the eye which 
unites behind the latter and extends backward on to the sides of the nape; chin 
and throat white ; breast grey, becoming paler and inclining to buffy-white on the 
abdomen ; thighs and under tail-coverts buff; axillaries and under wing-coverts 
white: bill black, operculum at base of bill, eyelid and naked skin yellow; feet 
yellowish-grey. Total length 530 mm.; culmen 76, wing 280, tail 120, tarsus 95. 
Adult female —Similar to the adult male but smaller ; culmen 72, tarsus 90. 
Nestling —-Undescribed. 
Nest—None made. 
£ggs.—Clutch, one ; ground-colour cream-white, streaked and marked all over 
with dark olive-brown, some of the markings being large and bold without assuming 
any regular form, and others mere blotches about an eighth of an inch in diameter, 
while many of the streaks were as fine as hair, and were of a crooked or zigzag form ; 
axis 61-66 mm., diameter 4446. 
Breeding-season.—October to February. 
Distribution and forms—Through the Moluccas, New Guinea and the coasts of 
tropical Australia. The extra-limital specimens are all lighter than Australian ones 
and each may represent more than one race. Thus Mathews has separated O. m. 
melvillensis from Melville Island, as being darker above with the lesser wing-coverts 
almost black, and O. m. queenslandicus from Mackay, Queensland, also in being 
lighter above than the last named, though darker than the typical form. Oberholser 
has recently renamed the extra-limital form O. m. scommophorus, on the grounds 
that Vieillot’s name was given to an Australian specimen, but the locality label was 
simply one of the many errors apparent in the relabelling of Peron’s specimens. 
SuPERFAMILY SCOLOPACOIDEA. 
This superfamily is composed of four families, Painted Snipe, Waders (restricted), 
Phalaropes, and Avocets and Stilts. The relationship of the first named is still 
somewhat obscure, while the distribution is peculiar, species being found in southern 
South America, South Africa, Southern Asia and Australia. The Waders, as restricted, 
are all peculiar in that they breed in the Arctic and North Temperate zones and 
migrate southwards into the South Temperate and Antarctic zones as soon as their 
breeding-season, which is very short, is over. They remain in the North Temperate 
zones, outside their breeding localities, during the winter as well as travel farthest 
south, while non-breeding birds will remain during the breeding-season in their 
southern quarters. The Phalaropes are a small group of specialised swimming 
waders, three in number, each of them having lobed toes but otherwise rather distinct, 
and breeding in the extreme north, migrate southwards as the preceding, but some- 
times erratic extensions of their migrations occur. None have as yet occurred in 
Australia, but one species not uncommonly occurs as near as the Moluccas, while a 
specimen of another species has been recorded from New Zealand. In contradis- 
