W— — — i^^^^^^^^^B 



Order CHARADRIIFORMES.l 



[Family CHAKADRIIM1. 



Cx AL L I N ACx AUSTRAL IS. 



(AUSTRALIAN SNIPE.) 



Gallinago australis (Latham), Cheeseman, Trans. N. Z. Inst., vol. xxxi., p. 105. 



In a communication to the Auckland Institute, in August, 1898, Mr. T. F. Cheeseman added this 

 Australian species to our list. The specimen exhibited by him (now preserved in the Auckland 

 Museum) had been shot by Mr. C. C. Sandford on the 26th March previous, in a field near Arch 

 Hill, on the western side of Auckland. 



This fine Snipe is to be met with, at the right season, in all suitable localities in Australia ; 

 and Mr. Gould found it very abundant in Tasmania in the month of October and on to the 

 following January, frequenting low swampy grounds, lagoons, rivulets and similar situations, and 

 affording excellent sport to the fowler. It is said to breed sometimes in Tasmania, but its true 

 breeding grounds are far north in Formosa and Japan. 



CRYMOPHILUS FULICARIUS. 



(GREY PHALAROPE.) 



Phalaropus fulicarius (Linn.), Buller, Birds of New Zealand, vol. ii., p. 30. 



No fresh instances of the occurrence of this cosmopolitan species in New Zealand have been 

 added to that recorded by Sir Julius von Haast in 1883 ; so that Mr. Michael Studholme's speci- 

 men in the Canterbury Museum is still unique. It does not follow, by any means, that the 

 species has never since visited our shores, because this is just one of those birds apt to be over- 

 looked amid the teeming flocks of Waders on their hunting grounds. 



Prof. Newton has the following remarks in his ' Dictionary of Birds,' p. 711 : " The ' Coot- 

 footed Tringa ' of Edwards, who, in 1791, showed himself a better judge of its affinities than 

 many others both before and after him, since for a long while some of the best authorities 

 thought the Phalaropes allied to the Coot, whereas they are unquestionably Limicolce, only 



somewhat modified in accordance with their habit of swimming The type is 



Phalaropus fulicarius, commonly known in England as the Grey Phalarope, from the prevalent 

 colour of its winter plumage, which it has generally donned when it visits this country, as it does 

 almost every year. It wears a very different aspect in summer, when the whole of the lower 

 parts are bright bay, while the feathers above are dark brown broadly edged with light rusty, and 

 hence it has in this condition been called the Ked Phalarope. It is known to breed in Spitsbergen, 

 in one part at least of Iceland, in Greenland, and presumably throughout Arctic America and 

 Asia, but not on the continent of Europe. Its wanderings in winter seem to be boundless, since 

 its appearance is recorded in Chili and in New Zealand. ... A more entrancing sight to the 

 ornithologist can hardly be presented than by this and its allied species. Their graceful form, 

 their lovely colouration, and the confidence with which both are familiarly displayed in their 

 breeding quarters can hardly be exaggerated, and it is equally a delightful sight to watch these 

 birds gathering their food in the high-running surf, or, when that is done, peacefully floating 

 outside the breakers." 



