350 SCOLOPACl-U^E. 



consequence of the advanced state of incubation, it was a full month 

 before they were made into good specimens ; a week later and the 

 chicks would have been hatched. They are far darker and redder 

 than the usual run of Woodcocks' eggs, all four resembling the 

 second figure in Hewitson's work, and in the character of their 

 markings they are not unlilce richly coloured specimens of some 

 Tern's eggs. They are remarkable for the roundness of their form, 

 and in having none of the pyriform or pear-shaped character which 

 distinguishes the eggs of all allied species." 



Gallinago nemoricola, Hodgs. The Wood-Snipe. 



Gallinago nemoricola, Hodgs., Jerd. B. Ind. i\, p. 672 ; Hume, Cat. 

 no. 868. 



The late Mr. Mandelli's men found four clutches of eggs of this 

 Snipe in June in Native Sikhim, opposite Darjeeling, at an eleva- 

 tion of about 11,000 feet. 



The eggs of this species strongly recall some varieties of those 

 of the Common Snipe and of Gallinago major. In shape they are 

 broad, almost hemispherical in the larger half, and abruptly com- 

 pressed from the middle and pointed towards the small end. The 

 shell is stout but compact, and has a decided though faint gloss. 

 The ground is a pale stone-colour, and about the larger end they 

 are densely and boldly blotched, the blotches mostly longitudinal 

 in their character, and radiating in curved lines from the broad apex 

 of the egg, with a rich brownish maroon, almost black in some 

 spots, the blotching being intermingled with very similar-shaped, 

 subsurf ace-looking pale, inky-purple patches and clouds. In one 

 egg the markings are almost entirely confined to the upper third of 

 the egg, where they are all but in places quite confluent. In the 

 other the markings, though somewhat less densely set, extend over 

 the whole upper half of the egg ; very few markings, and these much 

 reduced in size, extend in either to the lower half of the egg. 



Ten eggs vary from 1*66 to 1'75 in length and from 1'21 to 1*28 

 in breadth *. 



Rhynchsea capensis (Linn.). The Painted Snipe. 



Rhynchaea bengalensis (Linn.}, Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 677; Hume, Rough 

 Draft N. $ E. no. 873. 



I have only once myself taken a nest of the Painted Snipe, and 

 that was at the end of August, in a small swamp on the Diamond 

 Harbour Road about six miles from Calcutta. It was on very wet 

 ground in the midst of low rushes, and consisted of half-dry rush 

 twisted round into a tolerably neat and compact nest. It measured 

 6 inches in diameter exteriorly and less than 4 inches interiorly, 



* Gr. calestis, the Common Snipe, probably breeds in Cashmere, as noticed in 

 the 'Rough Draft,' but its eggs have not yet been taken there. Gr. solitaria, the 

 Solitary Snipe, apparently also breeds in Cashmere. ED. 



