344 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS: ZOOLOGY 



median and greater series decorated with large moon-shaped spots of 

 silvery white. Parapteral feathers short, black at the base and broadly 

 tipped with silvery white, forming together a conspicuous shoulder patch. 

 Bastard wing and primary coverts blackish brown, decorated with rounded 

 spots of silvery white on their outer webs, and bars of silvery white on 

 the inner ones. Primary quills blackish, decorated with silvery white 

 round spots on the outer webs and bars of white on the inner web, which 

 do not generally reach the shaft of the feather. The outer secondaries 

 are similarly decorated, but lighter in body tone, and all the quills are 

 margined with white at the ends. The innermost secondaries are much 

 like the scapulars in appearance. 



Lower parts : Entirely deep sooty brown back to the chest, where the 

 demarkation is abrupt and defined sharply, changing to an almost white 

 coloring which prevails over the rest of the lower parts. On each side of 

 the chest in the dark area a large spot of silvery white is conspicuous. 

 Lower breast and abdomen pure white. Sides of the body sandy buff 

 with some obsolete dusky barring and freckling. Under tail coverts sandy 

 buff Axillaries white. LInder wing coverts white with a few black 

 marks or bars. Quills dusky grey below, showing the white barring of 

 the inner webs. 



Iris : Dark brown (S. Pozzi). 



The sexes do not differ in appearance. 



Young fully grown differ from the adults in being paler brown, in hav- 

 ing white fringing to the feathers of the throat, and in having the silvery 

 white markings on the wing coverts replaced by similar tawny buff 

 decorations. 



Geographical Range. — Peru, Chili, Uruguay, Argentina and Patagonia 

 to the Straits of Magellan. 



This curious Snipe was not procured by the naturalists of the Prince- 

 ton Expeditions, but has been obtained at many points in Patagonia. 

 The material in the British Museum of Natural History and the small 

 series in the Princeton Museum form the basis for the description given. 



Mr. Barrows in his admirable "Birds of the Lower Uruguay" writes 

 of this bird : 



