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THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
H, finschi of Martens {Orn. Monatsb., 1897, p. 190) appears from the description to 
agree with two birds collected by Baron von Hiigel at Freshwater Creek, Canterbury, Ne'jv 
Zealand, and another from Kaipoi, Canterbury, These birds, however, vary among 
themselves in the amount of white on the quills, which is the destinction given by Herr 
Martens ■; and this variation in the amount of white leads me to consider that his 
H. finschi and three birds from Baron von Hiigel are only aben-ations of H. longirostris. 
In the Nov. Zool., Vol. XVIII., p. 213, 1912, I separated the North 
Queensland bird as Hcemato^us longirostris mattingleyi, on account of the 
smaller size of the specimens I handled, noting : “ Differs from H. 1. 
longirostris in its smaller wing : 268 mm. ; typical birds measure : wing 
282-287 mm.” Receipt of specimens from Melville Island proved a disturbing 
factor, inasmuch as some of them showed white markings on the inner webs 
of the primaries, while one had all except the outer primary strongly 
marked, as in the Enghsh bird. 
No Southern bird in my own, nor any of the specimens in the British 
Museum collections, had shown the least trace of white previously. 
With his usual courtesy the Hon. Walter Rothschild has placed at my 
disposal his series of this species from Australia, New Zealand, and the Islands 
North of Australia ; the latter have been most valuable, as it is apparently a 
scarce bird in such places. Amongst those localities were two from Lewis Island, 
North-west Austraha, and one from Luang Island, showing white markings on 
the inner webs of the primaries ; in addition the specimens from Luang 
Island, the Tiandoe Islands, St. Aignan Island — South-east New Guinea, and 
some Melville Island specimens as well as Torres Strait birds, agree in having 
very few black feathers on the inner edge of the wing, thus approaching very 
closely to H. osculans. 
It appears to me that Australasian birds can only be regarded as 
subspecifically distinct from the European typical form, and on account of 
the difficulty in hmiting the ranges of the forms suggested, I am proposing 
in this place to recognise two only, but anticipate more, as inhabiting Austraha. 
The results of my investigation are as follows ; — 
HcBmatopus ostralegus ostralegus Linne ; Europe. 
In the Hand-List of British Birds (p. 163) by Hartert, Jourdain, Ticehurst, and 
Witherby, the distribution outside Great Britain is given as “ Europe generally, 
eastwards to central Asia. Wintering as far south as Mediterranean, north 
Africa, Red Sea, and north-west India. Replaced by a closely-allied form 
in north-east Asia, and by others in Austraha and New Zealand, north and 
South America.” In the American Ornithologists’ Union’s Checklist the 
range of Hce^natopus ostralegus reads : “ Europe, Africa and India. Breeds 
from the Arctic Circle to the coasts of Europe, the Black Sea, and Turkestu/n ; 
winters southwards to the coasts of central Africa and India, occasional in 
Greenland.” 
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