458 



EHYNCH^A. 



Seasonal 

 and other 

 changes of 

 plumage. 



As in the Plmkropes the adult female is more richly coloured than the adult male, 

 but, unlike those birds, the adult winter plumage does not differ from the adult summer 



plumage. 



The female is slightly the larger bird (wing 5-3 to 5-0 inch), and may at all ages be 

 recognized by its wing-coverts, which are olive-green, each feather crossed by nearly a 



dozen narrow dark bars. 



The male is somewhat smaller (wing S'O to 4-8 inch), and the wing-coverts expose 

 only two dark bars on each feather, with a buff patch between them. 



Fully adult birds of both sexes may always be recognized by their primaries ; the 

 inner web especially of the first primary showing little or no trace of bars, but being pale 

 brown uniformly vermiculated with dark brown. 



The adult female has the neck deep chestnut all round, shading into black on the 

 breast. Young females in first plumage have buff bars across the inner webs of the 

 primaries, a narrow buff bar across the ends of the wing-coverts, grey instead of chestnut 

 round the neck, and the dark feathers across the breast have pale margins. They get 

 adult wing-coverts and primaries at their first moult, and partially adult necks and breasts ; 

 but the fully adult plumage is not assumed until the second moult, and even then traces 

 of immaturity are frequently found on the hind neck and on the primaries. 



The adult male resembles the young female in first plumage, except that the wing- 

 coverts are coloured as has already been described as peculiar to male birds, and the 

 y)rimaries as has been described as peculiar to adult birds. Young males in first plumage 

 have buff bars across the inner webs of the primaries (as in the same plumage of the 

 female), and the buff patches on the wing-coverts (peculiar to males) appear also on the 

 scapulars and tertials ; they get adult scapulars and tertials at their first moult, but 

 the buff bars across the inner webs of the primaries do not appear to be lost until 

 the second moult, and even then pale traces of them are often visible. 



RHYNCH^A AUSTRALIS. 



AUSTRALIAN PAINTED SNIPE. 



Diagnosis. Rhynch^a magnitudine magna (alae circa 135 millim.) : cauda fer^ integr^ : priinarise octavte 

 pogonio externo non nisi duabas maculis fulvis ornato. 



Yariations. No local races of this species are known. 



