86 INDIAN SPOKTING BIRDS 



other grouse, where the males show off, and fight when they 

 meet each other. The fighting does not amount to much, being 

 confined to feeble slapping with the wings, and not lasting long 

 at a bout. 



But the other performances of the males are curious ; the 

 bird runs about with puffed-out feathers and drooping wings, 

 every now and then jumping on a tussock, snapping his bill and 

 uttering a soft, nearly a warbling, note, audible for some distance 

 and rendered as bip, hip, bipbip, bipbiperere, biperere ; closer still 

 various other sounds are audible, and the warbling amounts to 

 a regular song. When singing the bird usually sits on a tussock, 

 holding up his head till the snapping note is given out, and then 

 depressing it, and erecting and spreading his tail till the white 

 side-feathers show as two patches in the darkness ; for although 

 commenced at the oncoming of dusk, the " Spil " as it is called in 

 Norway, is carried on all night. As the birds coming to it, in 

 Professor Collett's standard account here indented on, are spoken 

 of as so many pairs — usually eight to ten — it would seem they 

 are mated already, and do not come to get mates, although the 

 cocks are mentioned as running about as above described before 

 the females. 



The erection and spreading of the tail, by the way, is also 

 noticeable in the woodcock under excitement. 



The eggs of this bird are much larger than those of the 

 common snipe, and vary much in the amount of their marking ; 

 the ground is olive-grey or stone buff, and the spots deep-brown 

 and purplish-grey. 



Jack-Si\ipc. 



Gallinago gallinida. Chota Chaha, Hindustani. 



The jack-snipe is a rather neglected bird in comparison with 

 its relatives, perhaps on account of its small size ; it is only 

 about as big as a skylark, and its beak is less than two inches 

 long, while the weight, although the bird is commonly very fat, 

 does not exceed two and a half ounces, and may be an ounce less 

 than this ; there is no difference of size between the sexes. 



More important points than size, however, characterize the 



