EAST AUSTRALIAN SNIPE. 
more or less edged with white at the tips, the outer web of the first primary mottled 
with buff, the long innermost secondaries black, barred and fringed with ochreous- 
buff hke the scapulars ; lower-back, rump, and upper tail-coverts more thickly 
spotted and barred with sandy-buff, some of the latter fringed with white ; middle 
tail-feathers black with a broad subterminal bar of rufous narrowly lined with 
black and tipped with white, the rufous and black fading away on the outer 
feathers, which are for the most part buffy-white ; throat and sides of face 
buffy -white ; a dark line from the base of the eye and passing below the latter 
on to the sides of the neck ; fore-neck and sides of neck ochreous-buff with irregular 
bars of brown ; middle of abdomen white ; sides of body and flanks barred with 
brown and white as also the axillaries and under wing-coverts ; under tail-coverts 
sandy -buff barred with brown ; bill black ; iris brown ; feet brown. Total length 
324 mm. ; culmen 72, wing 157, tail 69, tarsus 37. 
Adult female. Similar to the adult male. 
Immature. The immature plumage of this species appears to be httle different from 
that of the adult, a more rufous shade being the only noticeable character, though 
the throat and breast appear more boldly streaked with black. 
Nest. A depression in the ground. 
Eggs. Clutch, three to four ; ground-colour pale stone, blotched aU over, but more 
on the larger end, with dark purplish-red spots and underlying ones of Li vender ; 
axis 40-43 mm., diameter 30-31. 
Breeding-season. May (Japan). 
Mr. J. W. Mellor reports that these birds were more plentiful many years 
ago than they are at present. “ It has a habit of sitting in the swamp grass 
and rising like a quail when frightened, making a quick, straight line 
of flight away from the intruder. One was shot in Tasmania on the top of 
the mountains of the Great Lake, on 9th December, 1906.” 
“ The Australian snipe is found in suitable localities on the island 
during the season of its visitation to Tasmania. 
“It is a singular fact that the snipe is decreasing in numbers in 
Tasmania ; the country is doubtless not as suited to its habits as in 
former years, when swamp and favourite marshy feeding grounds were 
in their primeval state ; but there are many tracts of land fit at the 
present time to hold numbers of snipe, and to which one would think 
that they would stray on their arrival. Nevertheless they fail to appear 
in them, and the common lament of the sportsmen is that the snipe 
are getting scarce.”* 
“ One example of our snipe was seen in Swan Bay, at the south 
of the lake, under singular conditions. It was feeding among the 'drift 
‘ lake weed ’ on the stony shore, and when roused by the approach of 
our boat, flew a distance of about 150 yards, and again settled in the 
weed like any ordinary Limicoline species. Tlie snipe is very abundant 
* Legge, Papers and Proc. Boy. Soc. Tasm. 1887, p. 93, 1888. 
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