238 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
rufous-yellow fringed with black and have pale edges ; the 
pin feathers, which are often hidden under the tail coverts, 
usually number six on each side and are brown with white 
tips. The chin is whitish ; the neck all round and the upper 
breast dull buff streaked with dark brown. The remainder 
of the lower parts is generally white, the flanks being 
barred with brown, while the lower tail coverts are buff 
with dark brown markings. The wing lining and axillaries 
are coloured dusky brown and white in bars of equal 
width. 
Bill blackish, paler at the tip, and olive-green underneath 
at the base ; iris deep brown ; legs and feet olive-green. 
Length 10°5 ; wing 5°25-; tail 1-8; tarsus 1:25; bill from 
gape 2°5. 
Distribution —The only snipe which visits the Island in any 
great numbers. Abundant all over the low-country during 
the north-east monsoon, and more or less plentiful in up- 
country paddy fields and swamps. Common in Southern 
India, Assam, and Burma, but rarer in the west and north. 
Breeds in Eastern Siberia, and winters throughout South- 
eastern Asia and the Malay Archipelago. 
Habits —The earliest birds arrive on the western side of the 
Island at the end of August or the beginning of September ; 
in the north, east, and south-east they are not generally found 
till a few weeks later. The birds begin to leave again about 
mid-April, and few are left by the end of the month. Some 
immature individuals may stay with us during the south-west 
monsoon, and in the Colombo Museum there is a fully-formed 
egg taken from the oviduct of a bird shot late in the season, 
showing that occasional and probably slightly wounded 
stragglers may breed in the Island. Snipe keep to soft and 
muddy ground, and are most abundant in large paddy fields 
near jungle and in the marshy surroundings of tanks. They 
move about from field to field a good deal, preferring, as a 
rule, those in which the crop has grown fairly thick, but not 
too high. To some extent they are nocturnal, and in the 
low-country during the heat of the day they lie up in the edge 
of the jungle round the fields, or in any little shady retreat 
that may be handy. 
