HETEROPTGIA.— GALLINAGO. 391 



On migration it is found chiefly in the interior of North America, and is more of an 

 inland species than its allies, which it otherwise resembles in habits. The nest is a 

 depression in the ground, lined with dead leaves. The eggs are four in number, 

 pyriform in shape, and slightly glossy, of a pale stone-colour, very densely speckled, 

 streaked, and blotched with rich chocolate-brown and pale underlying purple, these 

 markings being more or less confluent and forming a cap at the larger end. 



3. Heteropygia fuscicoUis. 



Tringa fuscicollis, Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. xxxiv. p. 461'; Salvin, Ibis, 1889, p. 379%- 



A. O. U. Check-1. N. Amer. Birds, 2nd ed. p. 88 ' ; Elliot, N. Amer. Shore-Birds, p. 81 *. 

 Actodromas fuscicoUis, Baird, Brew., & Ridgvr. Water-Birds N. Amer. i. p. 227 \ 

 Heteropygia fuscicollis, Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 574 ^ 

 Tringa bonapartii, Seebohm, Geogr. Distr. Charadr. p. 445 '. 



Ptil. hiem. speciebus similis prsecedenfcibus, sed minor, efc supraeaudalibus albis facile distinguenda : rostro et 

 pedibus nigricantibus ; iride brunnea. Long, tota circa 6-5, alae 4*7, caudae 1-8, culm. 0-9, tarsi 0-75. 

 (Descr. avis adnltEe ex Argentina. Mus. Brit.) 



Ptil. cestiv. Supra nigricans, plumis cinnamomeo marginatis, gutture minute, praepectore et corporis lateribus 

 distincte nigro striolatis. (Descr. maris adulti ex Momotombo, Nicaragua. Mus. nostr.) 



Hab. Eastern North America, breeding in the extreme north ^. — Mexico [Boucard ^), 

 Tizimin, N. Yucatan, Cozumel I. [Gaumer^ ^); Nicaragua, Momotombo (Richard- 

 son^); Panama, Uon Hill (M'Leannan^). — South America to Patagonia and the 

 Falkland Is. ^ ; West Indies ^. 



H. fuscicollis is a smaller species than the two foregoing, and is easily recognized by 

 its white upper tail-coverts, which form a band between the rump and the tail. 



It is a more eastern bird than its other North- American allies, breeding in the 

 Arctic Regions from Greenland to the Mackenzie River, and even on migration and in 

 its winter home keeping to the eastern side of Central and South America, though it 

 has occurred in Amazonia and Central Peru, and is doubtless found in small numbei's 

 on the western coast of the southern continent. We never met with ff. fuscicollis in 

 Central America, and but few instances of its occurrence within our limits have been 

 recorded. 



In habits the present species appears to resemble the Common-Dunlin, frequenting 

 shores and mud-flats and assembling in flocks. It is recorded as being very tame. 

 The nest is a depression in the ground with a few decayed leaves for lining. The 

 eggs, four in number, are of rufous-drab colour, blotched with dark brown or black, 

 the blotches confluent at the larger end ^. 



GALLINAGO. 



Gallinago, Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. &c. Brit. Mus. p. 30 (1816) ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. 

 xxiv. p. 616 (1896). 

 Like the Woodcocks (Scolopax), the Snipes have the eye situated very far back in 



