108 GAME-BIKDS OF INDIA 



buff 01' white bars, greater coverts dark-brown tipped white, wing 

 quills dark-brown, the first primary pale on the base of the outer web, 

 and the secondaries tipped with white. Chin white, neck, breast and 

 flanks mixed white, brown and rufous, the brown predominating ; 

 abdomen and lower breast white, under tail-coverts with dark shaft- 

 streaks. Under wing-coverts white barred with brown on the edge 

 of the wing ; axillaries white, sometimes slightly barred with brown, 

 but generally pure white. 



Adult Female. — Similar to the male. 



Winter Plumage. — " Scarcely to be distinguished from the summer 

 plumage, except by the greater amount of blackish mottling on the 

 hinder-neck and the generally more rufescent colour. The pale bands 

 on the back are lighter [sic brighter ?] but soon fade with exposure, 

 and wear the paler tints of the spring and summer dress." {SJiarjji'.) 



Colours of Soft Parts. — "The legs and feet are pale greenish, at 

 times with a bluish or greyish shade, generally more or less olive or 

 yellowish ; the claws blackish-brown ; the irides deep brown ; the bill 

 is blackish-brown at tip, and darkish-brown on nares, and along the 

 commissure ; the rest paler, sometimes a pale grey-brown, sometimes 

 with a fleshy tinge, and sometimes with a dull bluish or slaty tinge, 

 especially towards the base of the lower mandible." 



Butler calls the colour of the feet " pale olive-green." 



Measurements. — There appears to be no difi'erence in size between 

 the sexes or in the colouration of the soft parts. Hume thus writes 

 of this little snipe : — 



"I cannot discover any constant or average difference in th^ 

 sizes of the two sexes ; they vary a great deal according to age, 

 but equally large and small birds of both sexes appear to occur. 

 The following is a resume of my measurements : — 



"Length 7-75 to 9-0, expanse 13-25 to 1480, wing 41 to 467, 

 tail from vent 1'87 to 2'5, tarsus '89 to '95, bill from gape 1'5 to 1'7, 

 at front 1-57 to 174, weight I'SS to 2-48 ozs." 



Stoney records the weight of Jack Snipe shot in Madura as 1^ to 

 2 oz. 



Distribution. — A synopsis of the distribution of the Jack Snipe 

 is given by Gates in the second volume of his 'Game-birds.' 

 He writes : — 



