they are influenced by the character of the season, as none but humid situations appear to suit its habits. 

 During the fine season of 1839, when much rain had fallen and the whole face of the country was 

 covered with the most luxuriant and varied verdure, and every hollow formed a shallow lagoon, this 

 bird was tolerably plentiful in the district of the Upper Hunter, particularly in the flats of Segenho, 

 Aberdeen, Scone, &c. Although I did not succeed in finding its nest, no doubt exists in my mind of 

 its breeding in the immediate locality, as on dissecting a female an egg was found in the ovarium of 

 the full size and ready to receive its calcareous covering. In its habits and disposition this bird neither 

 lies so close nor has the crouching manner of the true Snipes, but exposes itself to view like the 

 Sandpipers, running about either among the rushes or on the bare ground at the edge of the water ; on 

 being disturbed, those I saw generally flew off towards the brush, seeking shelter among the low bushes, 

 from which they were not easily driven or forced to take wing. Its flight is straighter, slower, more 

 labored, and nearer to the ground than that ot the true Snipes. Considerable confusion has always existed 

 respecting the members of the group to which this bird belongs, the opposite sexes of the same species 

 having been described as distinct ; from actual dissection, however, of numerous examples, and from seeing 

 these birds mated in a state of nature, I am enabled to affirm that the figures in the plate of the folio 

 edition are accurate representations of an adult male and female. This species will be found on comparison 

 to possess, among other characters, much shorter toes than the Indian and Chinese species, to which it is 

 most nearly allied. On dissection I also observed an anatomical peculiarity of a very extraordinary 

 nature, the more so as it exists in the female alone ; I allude to the great elongation of the trachea, 

 which passes down between the skin and the muscles of the breast for the whole length of the body, 

 making four distinct convolutions before entering the lungs. On discovering this extraordinary information 

 I placed a body in spirits for the examination of my late friend, Farrell, who, as is well known, paid 

 great attention to this part of the organisation of birds, and who informed me that the position and form 

 of the trachea in the Rhyncluea Australis is similar to that of the Semi-Palmated Goose (figure in the 

 loth volume of the "Trans. Linn. Soc," table 14). The Cranes, Swans, Guans, &c, present us with 

 species having the trachea most singularly developed, several of them with extensive convolutions before 

 entering the lungs ; some with a receptacle for its folds within the cavity of the keel of the breast-bone, 

 while in others it is situated outside the pectoral muscles, immediately beneath the outer skin of the 

 breast, but in no instance is it more extensively or more curiously developed than in the present bird. 

 The use of this convoluted trachea, so exclusively confined to the female, I could not in any way 

 discover or surmise. No note whatever was heard to proceed from either sex while on the wing or when 

 flushed." 



Captain Sturt speaks thus of it : — " This beautiful bird was very scarce in the interior, and, 

 indeed, is not common anywhere. Some three or four couples visit my residence at the Grange 

 yearly, and remain in the high reeds at the bottom of the creek, among which they, doubtless, breed ; 

 but we never found one of their nests. They lay basking in the shade of a tree on the sandhills during 

 the day, and separate when alarmed." 



The male is much smaller than the female, and has the sides, back, and front of the neck much 

 lighter and mingled with patches of white ; wings, more olive, the coverts ornamented with numerous 

 large irregular patches of buff encircled with a narrow line of black ; the buff bands on the primaries 

 richer and more distinct ; the scapularies speckled with white ; the patch on each side of the chest dark 

 olive, with large patches of white surrounded by a line of black. 



Total length, 8i inches. ( Gould.) 



The female has a stripe from the bill down the centre of the head, to the nape pale buff, circle 

 surrounding, and a short stripe behind each eye white ; back of the neck chestnut, crossed with indistinct 

 narrow bars of greenish-brown ; crown, dark brown ; sides of the face and the sides and forepart of 

 the neck, chocolate ; chin, white ; back, olive-green, tinged with grey, and marbled with dark-brown : 

 scapularies blotched on their external webs with deep buff; wing-coverts, olive-green, crossed by numerous 



