126 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 



or chestnut, and the streaks and spots on the breast and sides of body are paler in 

 colour and smaller in size. 



Immature. Somewhat like summer-plumage ; head with broader brown tips, 

 feathers on back dark brown but with faint white tips ; coverts with white tips, 

 primaries and tail-feathers with white tipping ; very pale brownish spotting on 

 breast and flanks, a few elongated streaks on latter ; no chestnut on back, and 

 much darker than winter-plumage ; bill weak. 



Nestling, Nest and Eggs. Appear to be undescribed. 



Distribution and forms. Eastern Siberia to Japan, ranging in winter to 

 Australia, hitherto chiefly from the northern parts, but recently recorded by Alexander 

 from the southern coast of South-west Australia. No subspecies are known. 



Genus' PLATYRHAMPHUS. 



Platyrhamphus Billberg, Synops. Faunae Scand., Vol. I., pt. n. t Aves, tab. A and p. 172, 1828. 



Type (by monotypy) : Numenius pusillus Bechstein = Scolopax falcinellus Briinnich, cf. 



Austral Av. Rec., Vol. II., pts. 2 and 3, p. 41, Oct. 23rd, 1913. 



Limicola Koch, Syst. baier. Zool., p. 316, July 1816. Type (by monotypy) : Limicola 



pygmcea = Scolopax falcinellus Briinnich. 



Not Limicula Vieillot, Analyse nouv. Ornith., p. 66, April 1816. 



Falcinellus Kaup, Skizz. Entwick.-Gesch. Nat. Syst., p. 37, pref. April 1829. Type (by 



monotypy) : Tringa platyrhyncha Temminck = S. falcinellus Briinnich. 



Not of Vieillot, Analyse nouv. Ornith., p. 47, 1816. 



Smallest Waders with very long broad bills, long wings, medium tail, short 

 legs and feet. 



The culmen is very long, broad, from the middle flattened and with the tip 

 decurved ; the groove in the upper mandible becomes obsolete in the terminal 

 half, due to this flattening ; the culmen is much longer than the tarsus which is 

 again longer than the middle toe. 



The wings are long and narrow with the first primary longest. The tail is 

 more than one-third the length of the wing, and is doubly emarginate like that of 

 Pisobia. The metatarsus is short, regularly scutellate both in front and behind ; 

 it is not much more than two-thirds the length of the culmen, and nearly half as 

 long again as the middle toe. The feet are small, the middle toe being much shorter 

 than the metatarsus ; short hind -toe present. 



87. Platyrhamphus falcinellus. BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER. 



[Scolopax fakinellus Briinnich, Ornith. Boreal., p. 49, (pref. Feb. 20th) 1764,exPontoppidan, 

 Der Danske Atlas, Vol. I., p. 623, pi. xxvi., 1763 : " Siaelandia," Europe. Extra-limitaU] 



Mathews, Vol. III., pt. 3, pi. 165, Aug. 18th, 1913. 



Limicola sibirica Dresser, Proc. Zool. Soc. (Lond.), 1876, p. 674, Oct. 1st: China. 

 Limicola falcinellus rogersi Mathews, Austral Av. Rec., Vol. III., pt. 4, p. 70, July 21st, 1917 : 

 Melville Island, Northern Territory. 



DISTRIBUTION. Winter visitor to Northern Australia, breeding in the northern hemisphere. 



Adult male (winter}. General colour above ash-grey with dark shaft-lines and 

 white fringes to the feathers, some of the feathers on the upper back black, margined 

 on the sides with ferruginous, like some of the long scapulars ; bastard-wing and 

 lesser marginal wing-coverts sooty-brown ; median coverts brown with darker 

 shaft-lines and fringed with white, greater coverts similar but paler and inclining 

 to ash-grey ; primary -coverts blackish ; primary-quills dark brown with white 

 shafts, paler on the inner webs and inclining to white towards the base ; secondaries 

 pale brown, margined with white and with more or less white at the base ; some of 



