CEYLON RAILS, WADERS, GULLS, AND TERNS. 239 
GALLINAGO GALLINULA (Blanford, Vol. IV., p. 292 ; 
Legge, p. 828). 
The Jack Snipe. 
Description —Crown and nape black in the centre with a 
few rufous specks, and bordered on each side with broad butt 
stripes from the bill to the nape ; a dark band from the bill to 
the eye and a dark cheek stripe ; sides of the head speckled 
whitish ; hind neck fulvous brown mottled with black and 
traces of whitish. The back and scapulars are black with a 
metallic gloss of green or purple, and mottled with rufous ; a 
broad edge of rich buff on the outer webs of the scapulars 
forms a band down each side of the back ; upper tail coverts 
and tail brown bordered with buff. The wings are brown, 
the lesser wing coverts with whitish and the median coverts 
with rufous-buff edges ; secondary quills with white tips. The 
chin is whitish; the foreneck and upper breast brown 
streaked with white and black; lower breast and abdomen 
white ; under tail coverts striped with brown. 
Bill brown at the sides, black at the tip, elsewhere yellowish ; 
iris dark brown ; legs grayish-green. 
Length 8°5; wing 4°25; tail 2; tarsus 0°9; billfrom gape 1°6. 
Distribution —An occasional visitor to the extreme north of 
the Island. A fairly common migrant in Northern India ; 
rare in Southern India and Burma. Breeds in the Arctic 
Cirele of Europe and Asia, wintering in Southern Asia and the 
countries bordering the Mediterranean. 
Habits—tIn general, a solitary bird, frequenting damp 
marshy ground, where the grass is thick. 
RosTRATULA CAPENSIS (Blanford, Vol. IV., p. 293). 
RHYNCHHA CAPENSIS (Legge, p. 800). 
The Painted Snipe. 
Description.—Male : Crown olive-black with a buff band 
down the centre ; a ring round the eye and a stripe behind it 
are also buff ; lores brown ; sides of head streaked white and. 
brown. The upper surface is ashy-brown glossed with olive 
and marked with fine wavy bars of dusky black and broader 
bars of greenish-black ; the buff outer borders of the scapulars 
