70. GALLINAGO. 621 



of pale chestnut, followed by a sub-terminal bar of blackish brown, 

 before a palo rufescent tip ; a second rufous band, considerably 

 broken up, a little beyond the middle of the feather ; the eight 

 outer feathers on each side becoming narrower and narrower, till 

 the outermost has scarcely any web at all ; these wire-like feathers 

 with white tips, with an indication of a blackish sub-terminal bar ; 

 crown of head black, mottled with rufous spots and having a mesial 

 streak of sandy isabelline ; a loral line of black, surmounted by a 

 supra-loral patch of sandy isabelline continued into a narrow eye- 

 brow ; sides of face and ear-coverts isabelline, rufous just behind 

 the eye, all the sides of the face having more or less distinct 

 small streaks of blackish, and traversed by a broad blackish line 

 across the ear-coverts ; fore part of cheeks and chin sandy isabelline ; 

 throat and chest sandy buff, slightly mottled with streaks and 

 narrow horseshoe-shaped bars of blackish ; breast and abdomen 

 white, the sides of the body slightly tinged with sandy buff, and 

 being distinctly barred with black ; under tail-coverts pale sandy 

 buff, with blackish centres to the feathers, the longer ones narrowly 

 barred with black near their ends ; under wing-coverts and axil- 

 laries distinctly barred with black and white, the white bars on the 

 latter slightly wider than the black ones ; lower primary-coverts 

 ashy ; quills ashy below, the secondaries fringed with white at the 

 ends : " basal half of upper bill horny, the distal half blackish 

 brown ; basal half of lower bill greenish, remainder blackish brown ; 

 feet greenish ; iris brown " (J. E. Oripps). Total length 8*8 inches, 

 culmen 2'3, wing 4 - 9, tail 1/9, tarsus 1*2. 



Adult female. Does not perceptibly differ from the male in colour 

 and markings. Total length 9-5 inches, culmen 2-45, wing 5*1, 

 tail 1*75, tarsus 1-2. 



It is very difficult to distinguish young birds from old ones, and 

 I believe that the only characters of any value are the uniform 

 black stripes along the sides of the crown. In old birds, not only 

 are these black stripes mottled with rufous, but there are also 

 numerous small spots of rufous buff interspersed among the black 

 feathers of the back ; the black sub-terminal marks on the scapulars 

 are also smaller in the young birds than in the old. A further sign 

 of immaturity is, I believe, to be seen in the nearly uniform fulvous- 

 brown on the throat and fore-neck, these portions being more 

 mottled with lines and arrow-head spots of black in the old birds. 



From G. gaUinago the present species is distinguished by the 

 wire-like feathers in the tail and by the entire surface of the under 

 wing-coverts being regularly barred with black and white, and the 

 outer web of the first primary being whity brown instead of pure 

 white. Occasionally young birds of G. stemira have the whole of 

 the breast and abdomen regularly barred with dusky. 



Hab. Breeds in Eastern Siberia as far west as the valley of the 

 Yenesei. On its winter migration it passes by China and Formosa 

 to the Philippines, and also visits the Indian Peninsula and the 

 Malayan Peninsula to Java and Sumatra. 



