ROSTRATULA. 147 



upper wing-coverts, Init I liave found indications of tlie latter in quite 

 young birds. 



"Nestling. — Covered with down of a cliestnut color, interspersed with 

 black along the back, and prettily variegated Avith silvery tips to the 

 feathers; below the eye a whitish streak, bordered with lines of black; 

 under surface of body bright chestnut, with a black spot on the throat 

 and a black line across the fore neck." (Sharpe.) 



'"This species and G. stenura are likely to be confounded unless special 

 attention is paid to the differences between them. The first and most 

 unfailing point of difference is in the tail. In G. gaUxnago the tail is 

 composed of twelve, fourteen, or sixteen ordinary soft feathers; in G. 

 stenura there are ten soft feathers and on either side of these a number, 

 varying from five to nine, of narrow rigid feathers with apparently no 

 wel)s. These narrow feathers require to be looked for ; they do not strike 

 the eye, as they are more or less hidden by the tail-coverts and are more- 

 over very close together. A second point of difference lies in the colora- 

 tion of tlie lower surface of the wing. In the pintail snipe the axillars 

 and the under wing-coverts are very distinctly and regularly barred with 

 dark brown throughout. In the common snipe these same parts are 

 indistinctly barred, and there is always a patch on the coverts left quite 

 white and unbarred. Mr. Hume points out one or two additional differ- 

 ences which it may be well to quote : In the common snipe the outer 

 web of the first primary is white or nearly so, and the secondaries are 

 broadly tipped with white; in the pintail the outer web of the first 

 primary is of the same color as the inner, and the secondaries are only 

 margined with albescent or brownish white.'' (Oates.) 



Genus EOSTEATULA Aleillot, 181G. 



Bill long and slender but shorter than in Gallinago, its tip slightly 

 swollen and bent downward with a median ridge and two lateral grooves, 

 not pitted; culmen little longer than tarsus; female brighter in plumage 

 than male. 



124. ROSTRATULA CAPENSIS (Liniupiis). 



PAINTED SNIPE. 



Scolopax cdpensis Lixn.eus, Syst. Xat. ed. 12 I ITtUi). 1, 24(1. 



Rosfratulti capensis Sharpe, Cat. Birds Hvit. Mus. (18!t(i), 24, G83; Ilaiul- 

 List (1899), 1, 1(57; Bl.\nfori». Fauna Brit. Iiul. Bds. (1898). 4, 29:^ 

 fig. fi7 ; Oates, Cat. Birds' IZfr^^s (19()2i. 2, (iS; .Mr(JKK(iOK and Wor- 

 cester. Hand-List ( 1900), 29. 



l'a-((/h<>. ^[anila. 



Catandvianes { Whilchead) ; Leyte (Everett); Luban}; { Mcdrcijor) ; Lnzon 

 {Ercrelt, liounis d- Worcester, Mcdrcf/or) ; Marinduque {Stcrrc Kxp.) ; Mindanao 

 (Miirrni/, Ererell, Sleere Exp., lioiinis d- M'orrrstcr) -. Panay {Hounis d- War- 

 cr.sfer) ; Samar (Steere E.rp.. WhitrJicfid) ; Sihuyan { Mcflrriior) ; Siqnijor (liourxs 

 if M'orrcsler) . Africa, Indian Peninsula, (ireater Sunda Islands; Hurnu'so prov- 

 inces to China and Japan south to Malay I'cninsula. 



