SCOLOPACID^E. 



gape to the eye ; the orbitaNeather pale buff ; back, scapulars, wing coverts, 

 and upper tail coverts, marbled, spotted, barred, streaked and variegated with 

 black, white, grey, red, brown, rufous and yellow, that it is not possible to 

 describe them with accuracy ; chin pale yellowish brown, or nearly white ; 

 throat and breast pale brown, barred transversely with dark brown ; primaries 

 blackish, with triangular spots of pale reddish brown on both webs ; secon- 

 daries and tertiaries blackish, but with the markings more elongated and 

 reaching to the shaft. The whole under parts are yellowish white, numerously 

 barred with transverse dark undulating lines ; tail black, with spots and bars 

 on both webs, the tips ashy grey above and silvery white below ; tibia feathered 

 to the knee. The female is larger, and only differs from the male in this 

 respect and its duller tints. 



Length. 14 to 16 inches ; wing 8 to 8*25 ; tail 3*25; bill at front 3 to 3'2 

 (upper mandible); tarsi 1*5 to rS ; irides dark brown ; legs livid fleshy, as also 

 is the bill with a tinge of grey. 



flab. Europe, Egypt, India, including Burmah, Ceylon and Java. In 

 India it is a summer resident on the wooded ranges of the Himalayas, and 

 a winter visitant to the Neilgherries and the higher ranges of Southern India, 

 parts of the Punjab, Nepaul, Sylhet and Bengal, frequenting damp situations, 

 and feeding on worms, snails, slugs, &c. In Sind it is extremely rare, and 

 is known only by two specimens obtained at Kurrachee. It is also said to 

 occur in North Canara and the Concan, also in Persia, Beloochistan and 

 Afghanistan. It breeds in the Himalayas during June, laying buff-coloured 

 eggs blotched with reddish brown. 



Gen. Gallinago. Stepk. 



Characters the same as in Scolopax. Tibia not feathered to the knee ; tail 

 of 1 6 1 8 feathers. 



1282. Gallinago nemoricola (Jiodgs), Jerd., ///. Ind. Om. 



pi. 9; id., B. Ind.m.p 672; Hume, Str. F. vi. p. 459; id. and Harsh., 

 Game Birds, p. 325. The WOOD SNIPE. 



Top of the head black, with rufous yellow longish markings ; tipper part of 

 the back black, the feathers margined with pale rufous yellow and often 

 smeared bluish ; scapulars the same, some of them with zigzag markings ; 

 long dorsal plumes black with zigzag marks of rufous grey, as are most of the 

 wing coverts ; winglet and primary coverts dusky black, faintly edged whitish ; 

 quills dusky ; lower back and upper tail coverts barred reddish and dusky ; 

 tail with the centre feathers black at the base and chestnut, with dusky bars 

 towards the tip; laterals dusky with whitish bars; beneath the chin 

 white ; the sides of the neck ashy, smeared with buff and blackish ; breast 

 ashy, smeared with buff and obscurely barred ; the rest of the lower plumage, 



