420 CHABADRIID^E KOSTBATULA 



The young birds are like the male; the young female has,'how- 

 the white parapteral plumes not developed in the other sex. 



Distribution. The Painted Snipe is found throughout Africa, 

 south of the Sahara, including the island of Madagascar; its range 

 extends further through Egypt and Southern Asia, including India, 

 to China and Japan, the Phillippines, Borneo and Java. It appears 

 to be a resident throughout its range. 



In South Africa, although nowhere very abundant, it is widely 

 spread over all the colonies and territories, as shown in the follow- 

 ing list of the recorded localities : Cape Colony Cape division, 

 November, February (S. A. Mus.), Port Elizabeth, scarce (Brown), 

 East London, rare (Rickard), King William's Town, rare (Trevelyan), 

 Oudtshoorn, February (Victorin), Orange River, near Upington, 

 January (Bradshaw), Aliwal North (Wood), Lady Grey, breeding 

 January (Lawrence) ; Natal Umlazi River mouth (Ay res), Maritz- 

 burg (Fitzsimmons), Newcastle district, July to November (Reid); 

 Transvaal Potchefstroom (Barratt and Ay res), near Barberton 

 (Rendall) ; Bechuanaland Selenia Pan, December (Ay res), Soshong, 

 January (Holub), Nocana, July (Fleck) ; Rhodesia Shangani River, 

 November (Ayres), Tamafopha (Holub), near Salisbury rare (Mar- 

 shall) ; German South-west Africa Otjimbinque, November, 

 Swakop and Ondonga, December (Andersson), Omaruru, November 

 (Eriksson); Zambesi, December (Alexander). 



Habits. As shown by its rounded wings and short secondaries 

 the Painted Snipe is essentially a bird of limited migratory powers. 

 In fact, it seems formed merely to move about comparatively 

 short distances in search of damp ground. It is a shy and skulking 

 bird, usually hiding in reeds and thick vegetation on the borders of 

 swamps and vleis, resembling in this respect a Water Rail rather 

 than a Snipe ; its flight is low and heavy, and is usually for a short 

 distance only, when it alights again ; it feeds towards dusk coming 

 out on the mud-flats in search of insects, and its flesh is very 

 palatable. 



The most interesting thing about the Painted Snipe, however, 

 is the relation of the sexes, which appear to be reversed from what 

 ordinarily holds good among birds ; the adult female is larger and 

 more brilliantly coloured than the male, while the young female 

 resembles him. The female has a croaking, guttural note, while 

 that of the male is shriller, this being due to the construction of the 

 trachea, or. windpipe, which in the female is convoluted and modified, 

 while that of the male is straight and simple (see Wood Mason, 1. c.). 



