GALLINAGO, 123 



Hab. — Europe, Egj-pt, India, including Burmah, Ceylon and Java. In 

 India it is a summer resident on the wooded ranges of the Himalayas, and 

 a winter visitant to the Neilgherries and the higher ranges of Southern India, 

 parts of the Punjab, Nepaul, Sylhet and Bengal, frequenting damp situations, 

 and feeding on worms, snails, slugs, &c. In Sind it is extremely rare, and 

 is known only by two specimens obtained at Kurrachee. It is also said to 

 occur in North Canara and the Concan, also in Persia, Beloochistan and 

 Afghanistan. It breeds in the Himalayas during June, laying buff-coloured 

 eggs blotched with reddish brown. 



-ftO"- 



Gen. Gallinago.— ^z^//^. 



Characters the same as in Scolopax. Tibia not feathered to the knee ; tail 

 of 1 6 — 1 8 feathers. 



151. Gallinago nemoricola (Rodgs.), Jerd., III. Ind. Om. 



pi. 9; id., B. Ind. iii, p 672; Hume, Sir. F. vi. p. 459; id. and Marsh., 

 Game Birds, p. 325 ; Murray, Avif. Br it. Ind. ii. p. 604, No. 1282. — The 

 Wood Snipe. 



Top of the head black, with rufous yellow longish markings ; upper part of 

 the back black, the feathers margined with pale rufous yellow and often 

 smeared bluish ; scapulars the same, some of them with zigzag markings ; 

 long dorsal plumes black with zigzag marks of rufous grey, as are most of the 

 wing coverts ; winglet and primary coverts dusky black, faintly edged whitish ; 

 quills dusky ; lower back and upper tail coverts barred reddish and dusky ; 

 tail with the centre feathers black at the base and chestnut, with dusky bars 

 towards the tip ; laterals dusky with whitish bars j beneath the chin 

 white ; the sides of the neck ashy, smeared with buff and blackish ; breast 

 ashy, smeared with buff and obscurely barred ; the rest of the lower plumage, 

 with the thigh coverts, whitish, with numerous dusky bars ; lower tail coverts 

 rufescent, with dusky marks, and the under wing coverts barred black and 

 whitish. Bill reddish brown, paler at base beneath ; irides dusky brown ; legs 

 plumbeous green. {Jerd^ 



Length.— \2'% to 13 inches ; wing 575 ; tail 2-5 ; bill at front 2-6 ; tarsus 

 175. 



Hah. — The Himalayas, Neilgherries, Coorg, Wynaad and other elevated 

 regions in Southern India, affecting brushwood in swampy ground. 



152. Gallinago solitaria {Hodgs.), y. A. s. B. vi. p. 491 ; yerd., 



B. Ind. iii. p. 673, No. 869; Hume and Marsh., Game Birds iii. p. 333 ; 

 Murray, Avif. Brit. Ind. ii. p. 605, No. 1283. — The Eastern Solitary 

 Snipe. 



Head above brown, with pale mesial and superciliary lines ; a dark band 

 from the base of the bill extending towards the ear coverts ; upper plumage as 



