SCOLOPAX RUSTICOLA 7 



have also ascertained that though it is much more common in young 

 than in old birds it is by no means confined to the former. Colonel 

 Wilson, to whom I owe thanks for much information and many 

 useful notes, once showed me two birds shot by him on the same day 

 in Shillong, Khasia Hills, which might have been taken for different 

 species, so unlike were they in tone of colouration. In this case the 

 older, heavier and bigger bird was in the grey phase and, if I 

 remember rightly, both grey and rufous birds were females. 



It would appear, therefore, that in India young birds are more 

 frequently grey than are adults, but that this phase of colouration 

 is by no means confined to the former. In fact I have myself seen 

 fully adult birds almost as grey in tone as the Solitary or Wood Snipe. 



Ogilvie-Grant (in loc. cit.) observes : " The AVoodcock is more or 

 less dimorphic in plumage, i.e., two more or less distinct phases of 

 plumage are found ; some birds have the general colour of the upper 

 part greyer, while in others it is richer and more rufous. The grey 

 phase and the rufous phase occur in both sexes alike, in fully adult 

 birds ; but as far as my experience goes, the grey phase is never 

 found among young birds, which are always more or less rufous. 

 These represent what is often- described by sportsmen as the smaller 

 rufous ' species ' of Woodcock." 



Ogilvie-Grant in this same paper discusses an apparent disparity 

 in numbers between female and male Woodcocks and notes that out 

 of sixty Woodcock shot during the breeding season in the Azores only 

 four were females, and that out of eleven young birds sent him from 

 Cumberland only one proved on dissection to be of that sex. As, 

 however, he himself remarks, when one goes in for shooting roding 

 Woodcock one can hardly be expected to get many females (fortunately). 

 As regards the young birds this may be only an exceptional case 

 and it is hardly safe to take it as an example of the general rule. 



In India there appears to be no difference in the numbers of the 

 two sexes. Unfortunately in both the Calcutta and Bombay collec- 

 tions we have but few sexed specimens, and it is to be hoped sports- 

 men will help in settling this question one way or the other. 



Yet another point about our Indian Woodcock which is unsettled 

 is the question as to whether or not the Indian bird differs in any 

 respect from that found in Europe and Northern Asia. 



