JACK SNIPE. 381 



erect, the edges soft, the point blunt. The tongue is an 

 inch and ten-twelfths long, slender, soft, thin, canaliculate 

 above, horny beneath, acutely pointed. Along the whole 

 length of the upper jaw is a double series of short, pointed, 

 reversed papillse ; the oesophagus is three inches and a 

 quarter in length. 



The eyes are moderate, their aperture being two-twelfths 

 and a half. That of the car is large, being three-twelfths. 

 The nostril is very small, linear-oblong, only one-twelfth 

 long. The legs are rather short ; the tibia bare for a third 

 of an inch; the tarsus short, with eighteen scutella. The 

 hind toe has six, the inner eighteen, the third thirty, the 

 fourth twenty-six scutella ; the fore toes entirely separated. 

 The claws are small, arcuato-declinate, much compressed, 

 laterally concave at the base, pointed. 



The plumage is moderately compact; the feathers oblong; 

 those of the fore part of the back and the scapulars much 

 elongated. The wings rather long, of twenty-five quills ; 

 the primaries slightly incurved, the first longest ; the secon- 

 daries incurved, acuminate, the inner straight, elongated, 

 tapering. The tail is short, of twelve narrow, pointed 

 feathers. 



Bill greyish-blue at the base, dusky in the rest of its 

 extent, but with two-thirds of the ridge flesh-coloured. 

 Trides dark brown. Feet pale greenish-blue ; claws brownish- 

 black. From the bill to the nape a brownish-black band, at 

 first very narrow and gradually enlarging, all the feathers 

 slightly margined with brownish-red ; on each side from the 

 bill to the nape a broad band of reddish-white, in part 

 divided by a dusky line ; a dusky loral band, then a band of 

 reddish-white to behind the eye, and another of dusky. The 

 throat is reddish-white ; the neck all round variegated with 

 reddish-white and dusky. The elongated feathers of the 

 back and the scapulars are deep black partly glossed with 

 purple, variegated with light red, externally broadly mar- 

 gined with pale yellowish-red, internally with glossy green. 

 There are thus four longitudinal pale red bands on the back. 

 Along the middle of the hind part of the back the feathers 

 are small, black glossed with purple, and very narrowly 



