146 BIRDS OF TASMANIA. 



valleys. They are precisely like the Snipe of .England, but not 

 near so wild." Jas. Bischoff, in his " Sketch of the History of 

 Van Diemen's Land" (1839), states that Snipe were found in the 

 Circular Head district, but fails to mention whether plentifully or 

 not. Some twenty-five years ago, Colonel Legge, in the course of 

 an article published in the P.R.S. of Tasmania, says: — "It is a 

 singular fact that the Snipe is decreasing in numbers in Tasmania ; 

 the country is doubtless not as suited to its habits as in former 

 years, when swamps and favourite marshy feeding grounds were 

 in their primeval state ; but there are many tracts of land fit at the 

 present time to hold numbers of Snipe, and to which one would 

 think that they would stray on their arrival. Nevertheless, they 

 fail to appear in them, and the common lament of the sportsmen 

 is that the Snipe are getting scarcer." 



The conditions to-day are far worse than they were a quarter 

 of a century ago, and sportsmen complain that some years they 

 never see a Snipe. Mr. Thos. Haley, than whom there is not a 

 better sportsman on the East Coast, informs me that he has not 

 seen a Snipe for years. The whole thing is very puzzling, for there 

 are still a number of localities ideal in their way for Snipe — locali- 

 ties where the birds would be very little disturbed. 



The beginning of September may bg taken as the average time 

 when the bird arrives, and the end of February to the beginning 

 of March that of its departure. Mr. W. L. Sidebottom tells me 

 that it practically, if not always, arrives and departs during a 

 moonlight night. 



The marshy ground round and about the Western Tiers is said 

 to be the most likely locality to find Snipe nowadays. 



Mr. Campbell mentions that on the 27th July, 1897, three birds 

 were shot at Melton — an extraordinarily early date. A corre- 

 spondent to the "Nature Notes" in a recent issue of the Argus 

 writes : — " The earliest Snipe I shot in Australia during 40 years' 

 experience was on 16th June, 1908, at Lake Corop, and the latest 

 was at a swamp near Kentbrook, Heywood Forest, on 7th 

 March, 1906." 



ORDER— GAVI/E : SEA-BIRDS. 



FAMILY— LARID/E (8 species). 



*CASPIAN TERN 



{Hydroprogne caspia, Pall.) 



Male {breeding -plumage). — Forehead, crown, and nape glossy 

 greenish-black; mantle pale French grey; tail greyish-white; quills 

 dark grey to slate colour; entire under surface white; bill vermil- 

 ion-red; legs and feet black. Dimensions in mm. :— Length, 505; 

 bill, 79; wing, 419; tail, 153; tarsus, 41. 



