GALLINAGO 57 



or blackish-brown ; wing with two dark bars and head with the 

 orbital streak and bars on the head well defined. 



The above description is taken from a Cashmere nestling, and 

 nestlings from England appear to be brighter and more chestnut. 

 All nestlings have tiny silvery tips to many of the feathers. 



There is a form of the Fantail which has been honoured with a 

 separate name and called Sabine's Snipe {GalUnago sabinii) but 

 which is now recognised by all ornithologists as being merely a 

 melanistic form. The home of this is in Ireland, whence specimens 

 extend to England in some numbers, one also having been obtained 

 in Scotland and one on the Continent. In the ' Irish Naturalist ' for 

 January, 1895, Barrett-Hamilton has written an article on Sabine's 

 Snipe in which he accounts for no less than 55 specimens, of which 

 31 were obtained in Ireland and 22 in England. The only record of 

 its occurrence in India is made by Finn in his " Indian Waders," in 

 which he says, " a fresh specimen of a snipe was brought to me for 

 identification, which was an undoubted example of this form." 



A comparatively far more common variation in India is the pale 

 form ; one cannot call them albinistic as they are not true albinos. 

 Even this, however, is very rare. Mr. W. K. Dods, who has shot 

 many thousands of snipe, has never obtained one, and in thirty 

 years' shooting in India I have been no more lucky. 



The Indian Museum has five specimens of this pale Snipe. They 

 are all of a very pale fawn, almost white, ground colour, and have 

 the usual markings, but all of a pale fawn or rufous-fawn tint. With 

 the exception of one bird all have the bill and feet noi'mally coloured, 

 and one bird has also some normal feathers, on the upper plumage, 

 which are new, showing that it would probably have moulted into 

 the ordinary plumage. 



There is one specimen with pale feet and bill, probably therefore 

 truly albinistic, but the colour of the irides is not mentioned on the 

 ticket. 



In addition to the above specimens there is one which has part of 

 its plumage dark and part pure white ; even this, however, is not 

 true albinism, as the bill is dark as well as the feet, and the white 

 plumage is most probably due merely to some injury. 



In the possession of the Bombay Natural History Society there 



