EAST AUSTRALIAN SNIPE. 
the whole it is less like a bleating of an animal. I believe that both 
sexes take part in the performance. 
“ Taking into consideration the habits of its allies, the breeding 
ground selected by this snipe is very remarkable. For instance, I found 
newly-hatched and almost helpless young on the perfectly dry mountain 
side at least a mile and a half from the nearest water, which was in 
the form of a torrential stream, and apparently never visited by these 
birds. The ground in question, being composed largely of porous cinders 
and ashes, (deposited during the comparatively recent volcanic disturbances), 
dries up with astonishing rapidity even after a heavy downpour of rain. 
It is, therefore, very difficult to understand how these waders obtain 
their nourishment, the nearest marsh land or soft ground being many 
miles distant. 
“ For a usually shy species, the parents display much concern when 
their progeny are in danger. In one case on June 6th, while I was hand- 
ling a young bird three parts grown, the female remained fluttering 
in the grass within a few paces of me, feigning disablement, and uttering 
cries of distress and seemingly quite regardless of her own safety. 
I fancy this snipe wiU remove its young if they have been disturbed 
in any way, like a Woodcock, and the Japanese collector declared that 
he had proved this to be the case. Certainly the tv^o apparently helpless 
young birds that I found myself on May 26 disappeared in a very 
mysterious manner. After having carefully examined them I turned my 
attention for a short time to another nest. Returning to the spot five 
or ten minutes later I failed to find either of them again, although a 
very careful search was instituted. Now considering the ground for some 
distance was tolerably bare of vegetation, their disappearance could, I 
think, only be explained by the fact that they had been removed \^by 
one of the parents.”* 
The bird figured and described is a male, collected at Cooktown, 
North Queensland, on March 18fch, 1900, by Mr. E. OHve, and presented 
to me by Mr. H. C. Robinson. 
Commonly known as Gallinago australis ex Latham, it has escaped 
notice until I pointed it out this year, that Latham’s Scolopax australis 
1801 was preoccupied by Scolopax australis Scopoli 1769. It is thus necessary 
to take up the next name, given by Gray, in 1831, to a bird from Tasmania 
in General Hardwicke’s collection. This latter bird is stiU preserved in the 
British Museum, where I have examined it. 
* Ingram, Ibis 1908, p. 165. 
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