190 



As to G. huegeli being really distinct I am a little in doubt, for some specimens I have 

 examined come perilously near to G. aucklandica* I am bound to admit, however, that the 

 specimens in my collection are uniformly darker than my examples of the Auckland-Island Snipe. 



It is only fair that I should quote what Canon Tristram says on the subject (Bull. 0. C, 

 June, 1893) :— 



In the 'Ibis' for 1869, p. 41, Sir W. Bailer described a second species [of Snipe] from the Chatham 

 Islands as Gallinago pusilla. Very few specimens have been received, but the species has twice been obtained 

 in New Zealand (to which it is evidently an occasional wanderer) ; once by Sir James Hector, in the Gulf of 

 Hauraki, and once by Mr. F. B. Hill, on Little Barrier Island. All doubts as to its being a distinct species 

 have recently been set at rest by the large number of specimens obtained in the Chatham Islands by the col- 

 lectors of the Hon. Walter Kothschild and Mr. H. 0. Forbes. I have examined more than twenty specimens, 

 and find that all of them agree in every respect, so that they cannot be confused with the Auckland-Island 

 species. But when Sir W. Buller published his second edition of the ' Birds of New Zealand ' he had, 

 unfortunately, sent back to New Zealand his only specimen from the Chatham Islands, and borrowed from 

 me a specimen which had been obtained by Baron A. von Hugel on the Snares, seventy miles south of the 

 southern extremity of New Zealand. This I had put down as Gallinago pusilla, having at that time 

 never seen a Chatham Island specimen. It is very accurately figured and coloured in Buller's second 

 edition ; but it proves to be very different from the true G. pusilla. The only other example in existence, so 

 far as I am aware, is a second specimen obtained on the Snares at the same time by Baron A. von Hugel, 

 and now in the collection of the Hon. Walter Kothschild. 



He adds : — 



" This species may at once be distinguished from its congeners by its much redder hue, and especially 

 by the remarkable fineness and delicacy of its markings, the edgings of the upper plumage and the 

 striation and bands on the lower surface being much smaller, closer, and more distinct. In the other two 

 species (Gallinago pusilla and G. aucklandica) the abdomen and thighs are whitish, while in this they are 

 thickly barred. In this species the three outer tail-feathers on each side are attenuated, with a white edging ; 

 in the others only the two outer pairs of tail-feathers appear to be so attenuated. 



The Snares consist of two small islands and several rocks, which extend over a distance 

 of one mile and a half in a direction N.E. by E. and S.W. by W., about 62 miles S.S.W. 

 of Stewart Island, New Zealand. The north-eastern, which is the larger island, is about 

 one mile long and half a mile wide, and is covered nearly all over with trees. 



Nestling. — Covered with blackish-brown down varied with lighter. 



Fledgling.— -The first plumage seems to be more closely striated than in the adult. 



Writing of this form, Dr. Sharpe says in the ' Brit. Mus. Catalogue ': " This is a well- 

 marked race, a kind of ' Sabine's Snipe ' form, as Mr. Bothschild aptly terms it, of G. auck- 

 landica. It is the prevalent form in the Snares, but in the Bothschild collection there are 

 also three specimens from the Auckland Islands and one from Antipodes Island." 



In the four examples of this rare bird (two males and two females) now in my collection, the 

 sexes are exactly alike in plumage, but the general colouration is much darker in one pair than 

 in the other. The lighter-plumaged birds were obtained at the Auckland Islands, and of these the 

 female has a bill fully 0'25 in. longer than in the male. The darker-coloured birds (which, again, 

 are precisely alike in plumage) came from the Snares, and, if not a distinct species, ought 

 perhaps to be referred to Gallinago pusilla. 



* Dr. Sharpe formerly considered G. huegeli a sub-species of G. aucklandica, and he thus distinguished it : 

 {'Cat. B.', xxiv., p. 663) : "Adult male. Similar to G. aucklandica, but altogether darker, and having the under- 

 surface regularly barred with blackish, not only on the flanks, but also on the breast and abdomen. The upper surface 

 is also remarkable for the narrow sandy-buff fringes to the feathers, which have the black sub-terminal spots very 

 small. Total length 9 inches ; culmen 2-25, wing 4-3, tail 1-7, tarsus 0-9." 





