GALLINAGO STENURA 87 



under wing-coverts regularly barred throughout with black, or 

 brown, and white, the former colour being predominant. The 

 average bird is also duller and darker in its coloration, this more 

 so on the lower than the upper parts. The bill is proportionately 

 shorter and stouter, and the tail consists, normally, of 26 or 28 

 feathers, the external S or 9 on each side being very stiff and 

 narrow, the outermost only about "1 inch in width. 



The outer web of the first primary is, in all text-books, said to 

 be brown, but this is not quite correct, as in a large series one finds 

 many specimens with very pale outer webs, though these may never 

 be quite white. 



Colours of Soft Parts.—" The legs and feet are greenish or greenish 

 leaden, but, especially late in the spring, these parts exhibit, in some 

 birds, a distinct olive-yellow tinge; the irides are deep brown; the 

 l)ill generally has the gape, the extreme base and margins of the 

 upper mandible greenish or olive, but sometimes some or all of them 

 are unicolorous with the rest of the basal four-sevenths of the upper 

 mandible, which are usually pale hoary Ijrown ; on the other hand, 

 even these at times show a greenish tinge ; the terminal three- 

 sevenths of the bill are deep brown, blackish hoary towards the tip, 

 and paling towards the opposite direction." {Huiiic.) 



All I can add to these notes is that I have often seen the 

 Pintail with legs and feet of an olive yellow colour even in 

 September and October, and have had specimens sent me in these 

 months whose legs when fresh were described as yellow, and it is 

 probable that old birds have their- legs more decidedly yellow than 

 the young. 



Measurements. — " Length 9'75 to 10'9 inches, expanse 15'5 to 17'4, 

 wing 495 to 5-42, tail from vent 20 to 2-57, tarsus I'lO to 1-27, 

 l3ill from gape 212 to 2-25, bill at front 22 to 26, weight 3-3 to 

 475 ozs., average 3'91 inches." {Hiune.) 



Stoney gives the average weight of 472 Pintails as 4014 oz. and 

 of 2,347 birds as 3'93, a net total average of about 3'95 ozs. ; and Mr. 

 W. Gave records shooting a bird of the extraordinary weight of 12| 

 tolas (about 7 ozs.) This was at Secunderabad on the 6th January, 

 1890. 



Adult Female. — The female only differs from the male in being 

 somewhat larger. 



