38 GAME-BlRDS OF INDIA 



Measurements of the specimens in the Bombay Natural History 

 Society's possession and in the Indian Museum, together with a few 

 others which have passed through my hands, do not show much 

 variation in size between the male and the female. The average 

 measurements for both sexes are, wing 6'41 inches (= 162'8 mm.), 

 bill from gape 276 (= 701 mm.), tarsus ISO ( = 33'6 mm.). 

 The smallest bird, a female from the Indian Museum, has a wing of 

 6"02 inches (= 1530 mm.) and the largest, an unsexed bird from the 

 same place, has the wing G'68 { = 1G9'6 mm.). The bills vary in 

 length between 2G2 and 302 ( = 6G'5 and 707 mm.), and the tarsi 

 between 1'12 — that of a curiously short-legged bird — and 15 inches 

 (=28-4 and 38-1 mm.). 



The depth of the bill at the extreme base is only '32 inch 

 (=81'2 mm.) as against 5 (=12'7 mm.) in that of the Wood Snipe, 

 and the length and slenderness of the bill of the Solitary Snipe is 

 alone sufhcient to distinguish it from the other. In general appear- 

 ance the Solitary Snipe is a far paler coloured bird than any of the 

 other snipe, and this difference is even more conspicuous in life than 

 when the bird is made into a skin. In build it is also slighter, its 

 neck longer, and it seems to stand higher on its legs, though its 

 tarsus is really no longer than that of the Wood Snipe. 



The British Museum has a fine series of this Snipe, over 40 

 specimens, but of these only 11 are sexed, 7 females and 4 males, 

 and it is hardly safe to generalize as to comparative size of the sexes 

 on such scanty material. It is, however, more than possible that a 

 large series of sexed birds might show that the female Solitary Snipe 

 is bigger than the male, a fact usual, indeed, with most known species 

 of the genus Gallinago. An examination of those species of GalUnago 

 of which the British Museum has fairly big series shows the following 

 comparative measurements of males and females : — 



Males Females 



