SCOLOPACIN &. 845 
to 5°42; tail, 2:0 to 2°57; tarsus, 1:19 to 1:27; bill from gape, 2°12 
to 2°25 ; bill at front, 2:2 to 2°6 ; weight, 3:8 0z. to 4°75 oz. ; average, 
3'91 oz. 
¢. Length, 100 to 1117; expanse, 16:1 to 18:25; wing, 5:0 
to 5°58 ; tail, 2°0 to 2°67 ; tarsus, 1'2 to 1:35; bill from gape, 2°38 
to 2°62; bill at front, 2°45 to 2°7; weight, 3°75 oz. to 51 oz; 
average, 4:2 oz. ; average of both sexes, 4° 06 o7. 
Bill blackish- -horny at tip; deep brown in the centre, ereenish- 
horny at base ; irides deep brown ; legs and feet leaden-greenish. 
Very similar to the Common Snipe in color; but the under 
Wwing-coverts and axillaries richly barred with dusky and white. 
Such is Dr. Jerdon’s description, which is very meagre. Mr. 
Hume in the “Game Birds of India” has fully discussed the 
differences. 
1st.—The bill of the Fantail is more or less spatulate, that of 
the Pintail never so. 
2nd.—In the Pintail the axillaries and the entire wing- 
lining, except the lower greater-coverts, are invariably strongly 
and distinctly barred with blackish-brown. This is never the 
case with Common Snipe; the median secondary lower-coverts 
are always unbarred, forming a white unbarred patch in the centre 
of the upper portion of the lower surface of the closed wing. 
3rd.—In the Common Snipe, the tail consists of fourteen 
ordinary shaped soft feathers, occasionally sixteen, rarely twelve. 
In the Pintail there are only ten such feathers, but on either side 
of these are from five to nine very narrow, rather rigid, feathers, 
making up a total of twenty to twenty-eight feathers. 
There ought not to be the slightest difficulty in discriminating 
this species from the next, but sportsmen and others constantly 
overlook the differences, hence the difficulty in ascertaining even 
approximately the relative proportions they bear to each other in 
any one given district. 
The Pintail Snipe is of course only a cold weather visitant, 
and occurs throughout the region. In Sind the Fantails are much 
the commonest, in fact, I ought to say that the Pintail is 
decidedly uncommon; further south, they occur in greater 
numbers, until at Bombay they are just as common as the 
Fantails. 
Gallinago gallinaria, G'm. 
871.—Jerdon’s Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 614; (G. scolopacinus, 
Bon.) ; Butler, Guzerat ; Stray Feathers, Vol. IV, p. 15 ; Deccan, 
Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 428; Murray’s Vertebrate Zoology 
of Sind, p. 240; G. cwlestis, Fren.; Game Birds of India, 
Vol. III, p. 859; Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India; Ibis, 
1885, p. 133. 
THE COMMON OR FANTAIL SNIPE. 
Chaha, Hin. 
3. Length, 9:0 to 113; expanse, 15:0 to 17:5; wing, 49 to 
