SNIPE. 121 



breeding purposes, while none at all appears in the Scolopacinae (as here restricted). 

 In the external features the first named are generally smaller birds with soft-tipped 

 bills and short legs, the toes cleft to their bases and a small hind -toe, rarely missing ; 

 in the Tringinse the species are generally larger with hard -tipped bills and longer 

 legs, the toes with small webs between their bases and a long hind -toe, never missing ; 

 in the Scolopacinse the bill is hard-tipped, the birds stoutly built, the legs short and 

 stout, the hind -toe short and thick and the toes without webs. Variations in some 

 of these items occur which study of downy nestlings will at once explain. 



Lowe's osteological features for the separation of the subfamilies are less impor- 

 tant than the superficial ones, and some of the former are coincident with the latter, 

 as the status of the distal end of the premaxilla, while others cited require confirma- 

 tion from study of more material. Thus he apparently classed Gallinago with 

 Scolopax, whereas it should go nearer, or with, the Calidritinso ; the bony orbital 

 ring is complete in some cases, imperfect in others, and its value has yet to be demon- 

 strated ; the pterygoids are also said to differ but this is not entirely proven, and 

 this remark applies to most of the insignificant characters cited. 



Genus DITELMATIAS. 



Ditelmatias Mathews, Birds Austr., Vol. III., pt. 4, p. 282, Dec. 31st, 1913. Type (by 

 original designation) : Gallinago hardwickii Gray. 



Gallinagine birds with eighteen tail-feathers. 



The bill is very long, narrow, not deep at the base, straight and not expanded 

 at the tip, where it is wrinkled ; the wrinkling is only seen at the terminal third, 

 and the culmen shows scarcely any flattening at that point. The nostrils are short 

 slits placed in a groove near the base of the culmen ; this groove extends about 

 two-thirds the length of the bill, but becomes indistinct after the middle. The lower 

 mandible is similarly grooved and punctulate, and is shorter than the upper, which 

 becomes thickened at the tip and overlaps it. The wing is long and pointed, the 

 first primary longest, and is more than twice the length of the culmen. The legs 

 and feet are strictly Totanine ; the metatarsus is short, regularly covered with scutes 

 both in front and behind, and is about half the length of the culmen. The toes are 

 long and not webbed between ; the middle toe is slightly shorter than the metatarsus, 

 but with the claw slightly exceeds it. The hind -toe and claw are long and slender 

 and regularly Totanine in appearance. 



The tail is composed of eighteen feathers, which show little attenuation through- 

 out, though the outermost is thin and but little shorter than the central ones. The 

 tail is more nearly even than in the typical Gallinagine birds ; the outermost tail- 

 feather in G. gallinago (Linne) is much shorter than the middle ones. 



83. Ditelmatias hardwickii. SNIPE. 



Gould, Vol. VI., pi. 40 (pt. xxxii.), Sept. 1st, 1848. Mathews, Vol. III., pt. 3, pi. 166, Aug. 

 18th, 1913. 



Scolopax australis Latham, Index Ornith. Suppl., p. LXV., 1801, after May : New South Wales, 



based on Watling drawing No. 241. 



Not of Scopoli., Annus i., Hist. Nat., p. 94, 1769. 



Scolopax hardwickii Gray, Zool. Miscell., pt. I., p. 16, Nov. 5th, 1831 : Tasmania. 



DISTRIBUTION. Winter visitor to Australia and Tasmania, breeding in the northern hemi- 

 sphere. 



Adult mole. General colour above dark brown, the feathers everywhere barred 

 and mottled or margined with ochreous-buff ; head black, divided in the middle 

 and skirted on each side by sandy-buff, this latter colour more intense on the hind- 

 neck, where it almost obliterates the dark portion of the feathers ; lesser uppe r 



