124 GAME-BIRDS OF INDIA 



chestnut of the head and neck very dull, and the feathers are 

 margined with dusky. 



Nestling. — Dull grey or buff-grey, with a broad coronal streak 

 and eye streak of rich brown. The centre of the back is rich rufous 

 with a band of black on either side, and there are also lateral bands 

 of purplish-brown, running from under the wings as far back as 

 the thighs. The wings are banded buff and brown. 



There is no seasonal change of plumage in the female. 



Distribution. — Africa, south of the Sahara, but extending east 

 to Egypt, Madagascar ; throughout Southern Asia, though it appears 

 to be very rare, if existing at all, in Arabia and Persia ; in all parts 

 of India, Ceylon, Burmah and in the Malayan Peninsula, throughout 

 Southern and Central China to Japan, and also in Sumatra, Java, 

 Borneo, the Philippines and Formosa. 



In India it is to be found in practically every part of the 

 Continent where there is suitable country for it, and, in the same 

 way, it is to be found at a considerable elevation in the Himalayas 

 and other mountain ranges where there are swamps, lakes, etc., for it 

 to live in. In Kashmir it is often met with as late as September, but 

 seems to migrate to lower elevations in the winter. In the Khasia 

 Hills it is found up to 5,000 feet in summer and up to nearly 

 2,000 feet in winter. I have also records of its ascending the 

 Nilghiris to about the same height, and in Travancore it seems 

 to be found up to 3,000 feet, as I have had eggs sent me for identifi- 

 cation taken at that elevation 



Nidification. — There is, I think, little doubt, but that, like the 

 Bustard-Quails, the female Painted Snipe is polyandrous, and that 

 like the Bustard-Quails also, it falls to the lot of her many husbands to 

 hatch and rear the young. There are many points about the bird's 

 habits which have led me to this belief. Reference is made further 

 on to the parties or fiocks, of these birds which certain observers have 

 recorded as having seen. Now in every case in which such records 

 have been made (Butler, who recorded female flocks, afterwards 

 corrected his statement) the person recording it has stated that these 

 parties consisted entirely of males, that is to say, of birds in the male 

 plumage. Hume says that the larger of such flocks as he has seen 

 have appeared to him to consist of two or more families of parents 



