676 BIRDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 
species on the Coroca River in Southern Mossamedes, and the late 
Mr. Sala procured a single specimen at Katumbella in Benguela. 
General colour, pure white; wings black; back with a small 
brown patch near the shoulders ; tail tinged with brown; in some 
phases of plumage the head and neck are also tinged with the same. 
This bird may at once be distinguished from all our waders by 
the disproportionate length and slenderness of its legs, which are 
of a bright pink colour. Length, 15”; wing, 8” 9’’; tail, 3’ 6’"; 
legs, 10’. 
Fig. Dresser, B. Eur. vii, pl. 535, 536. 
649. GALLINAGO NIGRIPENNIS, Bp. Black-quilled Snipe. 
This fine Snipe may be easily distinguished from the Common 
Snipe of Hurope by the larger size, and by the blackness of the 
dorsal plumage, as well as by the greater number of tail-feathers, 
which in the last-named bird are only fourteen in number. 
It is distributed throughout the colony, migrating from place to 
place, according as the waters dry up. It prefers muddy swamps 
to clear streams, crouching amid the rank herbage. Its flight, 
compared to that of the Common Snipe, is slow and heavy, but 
is sufficiently rapid to puzzle the Boer with his long flint gun, who 
never dreams of firing a charge of shot at so insignificant a bird, 
which he is almost sure to miss! Both this and the Painted Snipe 
breed in the marsh below the Observatory near Cape Town. Mr. 
L. C. Layard has captured the young birds just excluded from the 
egg in November and December. The eggs themselves are laid in 
September, and are of a deep olive green colour, spotted and blotched 
chiefly at the obtuse end, with brown and purple patches more or 
less dark, and of various sizes and shapes. Axis, 1” 9’; diam. 
dees 
Dr. Exton says that the “drumming” noise made by this bird 
in its morning and evening flights have earned for it the name 
of Spook Vogel (Ghost-bird) among the Boers of the far interior. 
Mr. Rickard says that these Snipe are not numerous either at Port 
Elizabeth or East London. He has not found them difficult to shoot 
and has killed several with a walking-stick gun; they will sometimes 
fly round and settle in the same place as they rose from. Near 
Kingwilliamstown Captain Trevelyan states that it is common after 
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