122 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
wing-coverts dark brown, very narrowly fringed with white at the tips ; median 
and greater coverts barred and tipped with ochreous-buff ; bastard-wing and 
primary-coverts dark brown tipped with white; primary- and secondary-quills 
dark brown more or less edged with white at the tips, the outer web of the first primary 
mottled with buff, the long innermost secondaries black, barred and fringed with 
ochreous-buff like the scapulars ; lower back, rump, and upper tail-coverts more 
thickly spotted and barred with sandy-buff, some of the latter fringed with white ; 
middle tail-feathers black with a broad subterminal bar of rufous narrowly lined 
with black and tipped with white, the rufous and black fading away on the outer 
feathers, which are for the most part buffy-white ; throat and sides of face buffy- 
white ; a dark line from the base of the eye and passing below the latter on to the 
sides of the neck ; fore-neck and sides of neck ochreous-buff with irregular bars of 
brown ; middle of abdomen white ; sides of body and flanks barred with brown and 
white as also the axillaries and under wing-coverts ; under tail-coverts sandy-bufi 
barred with brown ; bill black ; iris brown; feet brown. Total length 324 mm. ; 
culmen 72, wing 157, tail 69, tarsus 37. 
Adult female-—Similar to the adult male. 
Immature —The immature plumage of this species appears to be little different 
from that of the adult, a more rufous shade being the only noticeable character, 
though the throat and breast appear more boldly streaked with black. 
Nestling —Unknown. 
Nest.—A depression in the ground. 
ggs—Clatch, three to four ; ground-colour pale stone, blotched all over, but 
more on the larger end, with dark purplish-red spots and underlying ones of lavender ; 
axis 40-43 mm., diameter 30-31. 
Breeding-seasonMay. (Japan.) 
Distribution and forms—Breeding in Japan, and wintering in eastern Australia 
and Tasmania, its northern limits being undetermined and no subspecies known. 
Genus SUBSPILURA. 
Subspilura Mathews, Birds Austr., Vol. III., pt. 4, pp. 295, 300, Dec. 31st, 1913. Type (by 
original designation): Gallinago megala Swinhoe. 
Gallinagine birds with twenty tail-feathers, the outer ones attenuated. 
The bill is very long, straight and thin, not much expanded at the tip, neither 
is it noticeably wide nor deep at the base ; it is grooved along the upper mandible, 
but the groove becomes obsolete towards the tip where the bill is punctulate or 
wrinkled ; the tip of the upper mandible extends beyond the lower mandible and 
is thickened at that point ; an obsolete grooving can be seen along the side of the 
lower mandible, which is likewise punctulate and wrinkled towards the tip. The 
nostrils are short slits at the base of the bill. The wing is pointed with the first 
primary longest, and is a little more than twice the length of the culmen. The tibia 
is unfeathered for a short distance and the metatarsus, which is short, is regularly 
scutellated before and behind ; the metatarsus is a little more than half the length 
of the bill. The toes are long and there is no webbing between them ; the middle 
toe is very little shorter than the metatarsus, and with the claw much exceeds it. 
The hind-toe and claw are long. The tail is composed of twenty feathers, regularly 
rounded save that the two central ones are very broad and generally much longer. 
From the centre to the outside the tail-feathers become thin, so that the outside 
five on each side are less than 3 mm. in breadth, the outermost being the most 
attenuated. 
In the genus Spilura the tail-feathers are twenty-six in number, and eight on 
each side are very attenuated ; these are also much shorter than the middle ones; 
but in Subspilura no such distinction in size is seen. 
