686 CHARADRIID^. 



Rhynchsea capensis vel indica, Hodgs. Icon. ined. in Brit. Mus 

 Grail, pis. 96, 9G a, nos. 538-9 ; id. in Gray's Zool. Misc. p. 861 

 (1844). 



Scolopax caffra, Licht. ed. Forster, Descr. Anim. p. 49 (1846: Cape 

 of Good Hope). 



Rkynckrea chinensis, Gray, Gen. B. iii. p. 585, pi. 157.%. 5 (1846). 



Rostratula bengalensis, Stejn. Stand. Nat. Hist. iv. Birds, p. Ill 

 (1885). 

 Adult female. General colour above ashy brown, strongly glossed 

 with olive-green, tbe upper surface freckled all over with transverse 

 lines of dusky blackish, with here and there broader bars of greenish 

 black ; some of the scapular feathers edged with bright ochre, 

 forming a streak down each side of the back ; parapteral plumes 

 pure white, forming another streak, which is, however, generally 

 concealed by the scapulars ; wing-coverts distinctly glossed with 

 olive-green and finely barred with dusky ; bastard-wing, primary- 

 coverts, and quills pearly grey, freckled with irregular wavy lines of 

 black, and ocellated with ovate spots of rich ochre on the outer web, 

 and with bars of the same colour on the inner web, all the quills 

 marked with black at the base of the outer web, more distinctly 

 seen in the primaries than the secondaries ; lower back, rump, 

 upper tail-coverts, and tail pearly grey, with black cross-lines, the 

 rump with a few white spots, the upper tail-coverts spotted with 

 rich ochre, with which the tail-feathers are barred ; crown of head 

 dusky, slightly glossed with olive-green, with a band of ochre down 

 the centre of the crown, bordered on each side by a shade of black ; 

 round the eye a cincture of isabelline whitish, reaching to a point 

 above the ear-coverts, and surrounded by a blackish shade above 

 and below, more broadly in front; lores and sides of face, as 

 well as the throat, deep chestnut, extending backwards round the 

 hind-neck ; across the fore-neck a broad collar of greenish black ; 

 remainder of under surface of body white, extending upwards on 

 either side of the black prae-pectoral band ; on each side of the 

 upper part of the breast a black patch with a slight greenish 

 gloss, succeeded by some brown feathers waved with dusky lines ; 

 axillaries and under wing-coverts white, the outer ones ashy, 

 freckled with dusky cross-lines and small spots of white or buff : 

 " bill greenish, yellowish fleshy at the tip of both mandibles ; feet 

 pale green ; iris dark brown " (E. A. Butler). Total length 9 inches, 

 culmen 1-85, wing 5-5, tail T65, tarsus 1*7. 



Adult male. Different from the female and rather smaller. 

 Easily distinguished from the female by the absence of chestnut on 

 the throat and neck, and by the different colour of the wing-coverts. 

 The latter, instead of being olive-green barred with blackish cross- 

 lines, are bronzy olive, with numerous bar-like spots of yellow-ochre, 

 these spots having a black line above and below ; the inner second- 

 aries similarly marked and coloured. Although there is a line of 

 sandy buff on each side of the back, there are apparently no white 

 parapteral plumes. Instead of the chestnut on the throat, the 

 latter is white with dusky spots on the upper part, the lower throat 



