GALLINAGO MEGALA 



105 



Measurements. — Total length lO'S inches, cnhuen '2'62, wing 5'6, 

 tail 2-15, tarsus IBS." (Sharpe.) 



Young Birds. — "As with G. stenura so with the present species, the 

 young birds appear to be distinguishable by their more uniform dark 

 brown chest and throat ; the stripes on the sides of the crown are 

 also black and not mottled with rufous." {Sliarpe) 



Normally Swinhoe's Snipe is a bigger bird than is the Pintail, 

 but the difference in size is not sufficiently marked to make it a 

 factor of any use for the purposes of identification. Thus a specimen 

 of the former in the Calcutta Museum, probably a young bird, has 

 the wing only 5"08 inches, whereas the Pintail often has the wing 

 up to 5'5 inches. 



Distribution. — GalUnago megala breeds in Eastern Siberia and 

 Northern China, migrating south in winter to Southern China, the 

 Philippines, Borneo and the Moluccas. It is possible also that it 

 breeds in Japan, though Alan Owston tells me that he has so far 

 never heard of its doing so. 



Up to 1910 the records of its occurrence within the limits of the 

 present work were two only in number. A skin of a bird, already 

 referred to, was sent me from the Shan States in December, 1908, 

 and a second was shot by me in Dibrugarh in January, 1903. 



Since then there have been numerous records, nearly all from 

 Burmah. Harington, in the Eangoon Gazette, records receiving a 

 skin of this snipe from Captain Venning, which the latter shot at 

 Myitkyina in January, 1910, and he also notes that Mr. H. Blanford 

 shot a specimen on the 7th March, 1910, in the Katha district. 



Another specimen was shot by Mr. J. P. Cook, at Thayetmyo, 

 on the 3rd October, and two others by Mr. C. S. Barton on the 

 29th September, 1911, at Maing Kaing, Upper Chinwin. 



Both of Mr. Barton's birds were shot in young paddy, the latter 

 in company with twelve Pintail and eight Fantail. 



Mr. C. Gwyer, I.F.S., obtained a specimen of this snipe at Tharra- 

 wady, Lower Burmah, on the 5th November, 1913, Captain Venning 

 also shot one at Pyawli in 1911, and Mr. Bloech records seeing and 

 obtaining several Swinhoe's Snipe round Eangoon. He says : — 



" I saw and obtained several Swinhoe's Snipes (C. mcgala), 

 though on the whole they are rare ; I am inclined to think that 



