6 GAME-BIKDS OF INDIA 



Measurements. — " Length 130 to 15 inches, wing 7'2 to 8'0, tail 

 from vent 30 to 385, tarsus 135 to 1-57, bill from gape 'i^iS to 

 3-3, weight 7 to 12^5 ozs." (Hume). 



"Total length 15 inches, culmen 2'85, wing 75, tail 35, tarsus 

 1-55." (Sharpe). 



Adult Female. — " Total length 14 inches, culmen 3'2, wing 73, 

 tail 2-9, tarsus I'l." (Sharjje). 



The Indian birds which I have examined from the Indian Museum 

 and the B.N.H. Society's Museum and other skins sent me from 

 Madras and Kashmir are as follows in their dimensions: — 



Males. — Culmen 2'7 to 31 inches, wing 730 to 830, tarsus 1'50 

 to 1-80. 



Females. — Culmen 2'90 to 325 inches, wing 7'20 to 850, tarsus 

 1-10 to 1-80. 



The question of comparative size of the two sexes is one which 

 has been very much discussed and the law has been laid down by 

 various authorities in various ways. Thus Jerdon says that the 

 female is the larger bird of the two, Sharpe makes out that it is a 

 much smaller bird with a longer beak. Hume sums up his opinion 

 thus : " they show absolutely no constant difference in the size of the 

 sexes." My own opinion supports Hume's, and I find that though 

 the birds vary enormously in size there is no difference in the ranges 

 of size between the sexes. One gets adult males as small as the 

 smallest female and big females as big as the biggest males. 



I have made very careful inquiries amongst sportsmen and others 

 concerning the comparative size of the sexes and have found most of 

 them under the impression that one sex or the other — their ideas 

 varied as to which it was — was much bigger than the other. This 

 is undoubtedly due to the fact that it takes a woodcock more than 

 one year to grow to its full size and the difference in dimensions 

 between a bird of six months old and one of eighteen months is very- 

 great. 



Another question which has never been settled is the reason or 

 cause of the curious grey phase of colouration so often met with in 

 the Woodcock. The colouration of this variety looks as if it had had 

 all the red pigment washed out of it. I have been unable to explain 

 this myself in any way. I have proved that it is not sexual and I 



