122 A MANUAL OF THE BIBDS 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-buff 

 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. 



Eggs. Clutch, 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-season. May. (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 me gala 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. 



