130 A NATURALIST IN WESTERN CHINA 



This is equally true in China as elsewhere. Though found with 

 greater frequency in the vicinity of habitations where cultiva- 

 tion obtains and food in consequence more abundant, Wood- 

 cock are commonly met with on the mountains where little 

 cultivation is carried on. When shooting east of Mao Chou 

 in October 1908 at about 6000 feet elevation Woodcock were 

 fairly abundant. I have also enjoyed good sport immediately 

 outside of the city wall of Kiating Fu. The usual flight of a 

 Woodcock is slow, rather erratic and owl-like, but when 

 fairly roused there are few birds that fiy at greater speed. 

 All its movements in rising and flighting are silent, almost 

 uncannily so. 



PAINTED-SNIPE 



This bird [Rostratula capensis) is more a Woodcock than a 

 real Snipe, and is easily recognized by its curved bill. In 

 plumage there is a vast difference between the young and adult 

 birds. This difference is commonly attributed to sex, the better 

 coloured birds being regarded as females. This is wrong. 

 The adult birds are alike in both sexes. The primary quills 

 of the wing are marked with buff-coloured, eye-like spots ; 

 neck, deep chestnut shading to black on the breast ; outer- 

 most of the inner secondaries, white, forming a conspicuous 

 stripe ; tail, olive-grey with four or five buff spots on both webs 

 of the feathers, aU of which are tipped with buff ; lower breast, 

 white, this area passing on to the shoulder forming a stripe 

 on the scapular region. The young birds have a much lighter 

 plumage aU over, and look very different, but a series will show 

 every gradation up to the adult plumage. 



The Painted-snipe has an exceedingly ^^'ide range, but I 

 have only met with it in the neighbourhood of Ichang, where it 

 an-ives in September and remains to about the end of October. 

 Some years it is more plentiful than others, but it is a rare 

 bird at any time in this region, and I never saw it in western 

 Szechuan. It is said to breed in the Yangtsze Valley, and I 

 assume this refers to the alluvial reed-clad marshlands of the 

 Yangtsze delta. At Ichang it is simply a visitant. 



The favourite haunt of this bird is wet, weedy places, 



