292 CHARADRIIFORMES : CHIONIDIDAE CHAP. 



occupies the Auckland, Snares, Chatham, and Antipodes Islands, 

 and has visited New Zealand. G. stenura, the Pin-tailed Snipe, 

 with twenty-six rectrices, the eight outer of which on each side 

 are stiff and attenuated, breeds from the Yenesei to the Pacific, 

 and winters in the Indian Eegion ; G. megala, with twelve of its 

 twenty tail-feathers narrowed, inhabits East Siberia and passes 

 through Japan to China, the Philippines, Borneo, and the Moluccas 

 in winter. G. (Limnocryptes) gallinula, the Jack Snipe, found in 

 Britain from autumn to spring, breeds from Scandinavia to Siberia, 

 and migrates to North Africa, the Indian Eegion, and Japan. The 

 upper parts show a greenish and purple gloss, while it has only 

 twelve rectrices. Like G. major, it frequents drier spots than the 

 Common Snipe, and rises without a sound in the shooting season, 

 the flight being butterfly-like ; the habits in summer are similar to 

 those of the last-named species, and the eggs even larger for its size. 



Of the so-called Painted Snipes the female of RJiyncJiaea or 

 Rostratula capensis has a brown head with chestnut cheeks and 

 collar, a brownish-green back with blackish freckling, scattered 

 golden-buff ocelli and streaks on the upper parts, a black fore-neck, 

 a white under surface and ring round the eye. The male is duller, 

 without the chestnut tints. This species inhabits the whole Ethio- 

 pian and most of the Indian Region, as well as Egypt, Arabia, 

 and Japan ; the larger R. australis, with only a chestnut patch 

 on the nape, occupies Australia. R. semicollaris of Chili and 

 Patagonia, which visits Peru and Brazil, shews no chestnut collar,, 

 but has black upper wing-coverts with round white spots ; the 

 sexes being alike. In mature females of the Old World forms 

 the trachea extends in a loop or loops over the furcula, or even 

 over the pectoral muscles. 1 The habits of these birds are Snipe- 

 like, but the flight is slower, and the hen's note purring ; the whitish 

 eggs with plentiful black spots are somewhat Plover-like, while R. 

 semicollaris apparently lays only two. The Indian species is said 

 to hiss at intruders, with its wings and tail expanded into a disc. 



The short-winged Phegornis mitchelli, which lacks a hallux, is 

 brown above, and white with very close dusky bars below ; the 

 head is black, save for a white band which surrounds the occiput ; 

 while a neck-collar is formed by a fine orange patch behind and a 

 white area in front. It inhabits the Andes from Peru to Chili. 



Fam. II. Chionididae. This group with Dromas possibly 



1 Wood-Mason. P.Z.S. 1878, pp. 745-751 ; Gould, Birds of Australia, ii. 1865, p. 275. 



