RHYXCILEA. 

 Rhynchaea australis, Gould, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1837, p. 155. 



459 



Plates. — Gould, Birds of Australia, vi. pi. 41. 

 Habits. — Gould, Handb. Birds Austr. ii. p. 274. 

 Eggs.— Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1886, p. 1060. 



The Australian Painted Snipe differs externally from its Asiatic and African ally in 

 very slight details. It is on an average a larger bird, but its tarsus and middle toe are 

 not quite so long. The only difference in colour that I have been able to discover is that 

 in the continental species there are more buff spots on the outer webs of the primaries 

 than is the case with the island species. For example, on the outer web of the eighth 

 primary : — 



JR. capensis has two buff patches in the black base, and two in grey above it. 



B. australis has only one buff patch in the black base, and only one in the grey 

 above it. 



The Australian Painted Snipe is generally distributed throughout the continent whose 

 name it bears, though nowhere very abundantly. It appears to be absent from the extreme 

 north, but has occurred at Rockingham Bay. It has not been recorded from Tasmania. 

 To what extent it is a migratory bird has not been ascertained, but Gould regarded it as 

 only a summer visitor to New South Wales. 



The most remarkable fact connected with the history of the Painted Snipes is the 

 structural difference between the female of the Indian Painted Snipe and that of the 

 Australian species. In the latter the trachea is elongated and convoluted in a remarkable 

 manner (Wood-Mason, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1878, p. 747). 



Synonymy. 



Literature. 



Specific 

 characters. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



Convolution 

 of the 

 trachea. 



RHYNCH^A SEMICOLLARIS. 



SOUTH-AMERICAN PAINTED SNIPE. (Plate XIX.) 



Rhynchjea magnitudine parva (alas circa 100 millim.) : cauda valde cuneata. 



Diagnosis. 



No local races of this species are known. 



Variations. 



3n 2 



