Gallinago megala Swinhoe
Marsh Snipe
Gallinago megala Swinhoe, Ibis, 1861, p. 343. (Type locality, Between Takoo and Pekin, China.
Gallinago heteroeaca Finsch, Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 8, 1875, pp. 5, 36 (Palau).
Gallinago megala Salvadori, Ornith. Papuasia, 3, 1882, p. 337 (Pelew); Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 67 (Pelew); Sharpe, Cat. Birds British Mus., 24, 1896, p. 624 (Pelew); Hartert, Novit. Zool., 5, 1898, p. 65 (Guam); Seale, Occ. Papers Bernice P. Bishop Mus., 1, 1901, p. 33 (Mariannas); Safford, Osprey, 1902, p. 67 (Mariannas); idem, The Plant World, 7, 1904, p. 266 (Guam); idem, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb., 9, 1905, p. 80 (Guam); Cox, Island of Guam, 1917, p. 21 (Guam); Hartert, Vögel pal. Fauna, 13-14, 1921, p. 1665 (Palau, Guam); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 44 (Guam, Palau); Strophlet, Auk, 63, 1946, p. 537 (Guam); Baker, Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 107, no. 15, 1948, p. 54 (Angaur).
Subspilura megala Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 49 (Guam, Pelew).
Capella megala Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 193 (Guam, Koror); Bryan, Guam Rec., vol. 13, no. 2, 1936, p. 24 (Guam); Robinson and Chasen, Birds Malay Peninsula, 3, 1936, p. 170 (Pelew, Marianne); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 316 (Guam, Koror).
Geographic range.—Breeds in east-central Asia. Winters south to Malaysia, Australia, and parts of Melanesia. In Micronesia: Mariana Islands—Guam; Palau Islands—Koror, Angaur.
Specimens examined.—One female from Palau Islands, USNM—Angaur (Sept. 21).
Remarks.—The Marsh Snipe is a regular visitor to western Micronesia, being recorded from the Mariana and Palau islands. At Angaur on September 21, 1945, the NAMRU2 party observed four birds at the edge of a brackish water swamp, which was margined with reeds and other vegetation. Birds were not seen on tidal beaches at Peleliu. Strophlet (1946:537) records the Marsh Snipe at Guam on October 21 and December 3, 1945.