RHYNCHAA AUSTRALIS, ea

Australian Rhynchea.

Rhynchea Australis, Gould in Proc. of Zool. Soc., Part V. p. 155; and in Syn. Birds of Australia, Part IV.

 

Tue Australian Rhynchea is a summer visitant to New South Wales, where it arrives in August and
September ; but whether its visits are regular, or only occur in such wet seasons as fill the lagoons and cause
a redundance of rushes and other herbage to spring forth, I know not; in all probability they are entirely
influenced by the character of the season, as none but the most 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, nearly of the full size, and ready to
receive its calcareous covering or shell. In its habits and disposition this bird partakes both of the true
Snipe and Sandpiper ; it neither lies so close nor has it 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 toward the brush, seeking shelter among the
low bushes, from which they were not easily driven or forced to take wing. It flies straighter, slower,
more laboured and nearer to the ground than 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 accompanying Plate 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 forming the breast for the whole length of the body, making four distinct con-
volutions before entering the lungs. On discovering this extraordinary formation I immediately placed the
body in spirits, for the examination of my friend Mr. Yarrell, who, as is well known, has paid great
attention to this part of the organization of birds, and who informs me that the position and form of the
trachea in the Rhynchea Australis is similar to that of the Semipalmated Goose, figured in the 15th volume
of the Trans. Linn. Soc. Tab. 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 mn)
some with a receptacle for its folds within the cavity of the keel of the breast-bone; while m euhets it 1s
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 conformation so exclusively confined to one, and that the female sex, 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. :

The female has a stripe from the bill down the centre of the head to the nape pal but 3 cumele sur-
rounding and a short stripe behind each eye white; back of the neck eH erase with indistinct narrow
bars of greenish brown ; crown dark brown ; sides of the face, and the sides and forepart of tne neck cho-
colate ; chin white; back olive-green tinged with grey, and marbled with dark brown ; ee ae
on their external webs with deep buff; wing-coverts olive-green, crossed by numerous fine irregular eye
black ; tertiaries olive-green tinged with grey, crossed by irregular Wa and mumenously spond with
black; three outer primaries dark brown, crossed on their outer welds vn broad innegula patches of deep
buff, and sprinkled with grey on the inner; the remainder of the ie and the ee grey, : a
by numerous narrow irregular lines of black, and spotted with white ee with black ; ; ae
grey like the secondaries, but spotted with both white and! bul, each of ee Oe a ae : ho
black ; breast and all the under surface white, with a large irregular peice of ole: grou narrowly barrec
with black, on each side of the chest; bill pale green at the base, passing into brownish horn-colour at the
tip; irides rather dark hazel; legs pale green. : is

The male is much smaller than the female, and has the sides, back and a of the neck ae lighte1
and mingled with patches of white ; wings more olive, the coverts ane with ae a
patches of buff, encircled with a narrow line of black; the buf ae on oe ves 1 ae a ae
distinct ; the scapularies speckled with white ; the patch on each side of the chest dark ‘ arg
patches of white surrounded by a line of black.

The figures represent both sexes of the natur al size.