LARGER PIN-TAILED SNIPE. 
Immature, Duller above, with rufous edgings to the feathers above and behind the eyes, 
to the inner webs of the scapulars and upper tail-coverts ; the wing-coverts more 
dusky ; the markings on the scapulars and secondaries are more rufous ; the outer 
tail-feathers lack the bold white tips of the adult, the markings being dusky ; the 
under tail-coverts are also dusky-rufous, not pale buffy-white, and the feathers 
of the throat and upper-breast have longitudinal black centre-streaks. 
Nest. A hollow, lined with grass. 
Eggs. “ Clutch four. These eggs are rather short and thick, resembling in their shape 
those of the Woodcock, but rather more oval, and some even are typical of this 
latter form ; ground colour, creamy white or a little more yellow or pale, dirty 
ochre. The spots of the lower end are of pale reddish, the upper reddish-brown 
or brown ; the larger ones slanting, and coming together at the larger end, where 
there are also sometimes either zig-zags or spots ; on the rest of the surface there 
are only dots and little stripes. Axis 40-43 mm. ; diameter 30-32.” (Taczanowski.) 
Breeding-season. June (Siberia, Taczanowski). 
I FIRST added this species to the Australian List, in the Austral Avian Record^ 
Vol. I., p. 125, 1912, from skins collected in North-west Australia by Mr. J. P. 
Rogers, and I now extend its Australian range to the Northern Territory, from 
skins collected on Melville Island by the same man. 
It seems strange that this very good species should have been overlooked 
for so many years by Australian ornithologists, especially as Gould pointed 
out in 1848 that the tail-feathers of birds from Port Essington were different 
from the tail-feathers of birds from Tasmania, in having the four lateral 
feathers narrower. Yet Ramsay, in his Tab. List Austr. Birds, p. 20, 1888, 
considered it identical with the Eastern bird, and “ other Australians, good 
at discriminating species and forms,” appeared to think that one species went 
aU over Australia. Legge {Papers and Proc. Roy. Soc. Tasin. 1887, p. 93, 1888) 
thought Gould’s bird might be megala, but in 1892 he apparently considered 
there was only one species that visited Australia. 
It is found breeding from Lake Baikal to the Sea of Japan. 
Mr. J. P. Rogers found this species fairly common in the North-west 
of Australia. He says they were numerous on the 18th of January, 1909, on 
the marshy plain, sufficient rain having fallen to fill the crab-holes. “ They 
have gathered here as there are a few acres of moist, marshy ground around 
the swamps, and this is the only suitable place I have seen for them. I saw 
about one hundred birds in about two hours, either in singles or pairs. By 
April the 19th they had aU gone away.” The same collector also found them 
on Melville Island, Northern Territory. 
“ On the south of Lake Baikal it is very common in spring migration, 
it passed in large flocks early in May, and remains there in small numbers 
for the nesting. At this time it is not in such large flocks, as the Common 
Snipe, but one can say that isolated pairs are dispersed over the dry prairies 
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