384 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



paratively few are left. This is but natural, for the country dries up 

 rapidly after the cessation of the rains, and the available amount of feeding- 

 ground is consequently much reduced. I have shot a single specimen of 

 this Snipe as late as the 1st of May. 



This Snipe differs in habits very markedly from the Common Snipe, for 

 although it is found in great abundance in paddy-fields, I think that perhaps 

 more birds will be found on comparatively dry grass-land. Waste land 

 slightly swampy and covered with tufts of coarse grass which have been 

 eaten down rather short by cattle attracts vast numbers of this Snipe. The 

 reason for this appears to be that the Pintail's diet is not exclusively 

 worms, but perhaps more usually insects, grubs, small shells and vegetable 

 matter, in searching for which it is not obliged to insert its bill into the 

 ground. During the hot weather the Pintail is found in grass-land which 

 is not only dry but positively baked. Such is the case in the compound 

 of the bungalow at Pagagalay, on the Pegu and Tonghoo road, where 

 during March and April two or three birds can be invariably flushed out 

 of the grass growing quite close to the house. 



The breeding-haunts of the Pintail are known to lie in Siberia, but no 

 one has yet apparently taken the eggs. 



G. megala from China is allied to this species, differing chiefly in having 

 fewer stiff lateral tail-feathers, and these are broader and more rufescent. 



729. GALLINAGO GALLINULA. 



THE JACK SNIPE. 



Scolopax gallinula, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 244. Gallinago gallinula, Jerd. B. 

 Ind. ii. p. 676; Hume, 8. F. iii. p. 182 ; Bl. B. Burm. p. 157; David et Oust. 

 Ois. Chine, p. 479 ; Dresser, Birds JEur. vii. p. 653 ; Hume fy Dav. S. F. vi. 

 p. 459; Cripps, S. F. vii. p. 302; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 112; Scully, 8. F. viii. 

 p. 356 ; Leyge, Birds Ceylon, p. 828 ; Hume fy Marsh. Game Birds, iii. p. 373, 

 pi. ; Hume, S. F. x. p. 239, note. 



Description. Male and female. Crown and nape deep black, some of the 

 feathers edged with rufous ; a broad buff band on each side the crown, 

 extending from the upper mandible over the eye to the nape, with a narrow 

 black line running down its middle ; a broad dark brown streak from the 

 bill along the lores to the eye ; back and scapulars glossy greenish black 

 with lilac and purple reflections, the scapulars with the outer webs chiefly 

 buff, forming two broad bands down the upper plumage ; tail dark brown 

 edged with rufous ; wing-coverts black edged with whitish ; quills black, 

 the secondaries whitish at the tips ; tertiaries mingled black and rufous ; 

 chin and upper throat white ; lower throat, breast and sides of the neck 



