THE JACK SNIPE. 385 



brown, tinged with rufous and mottled with whitish; remainder of loucr 

 plumage white ; axillaries white mottled with pale brown. 



Bill bluish at the base, black towards the tip ; irides deep brown ; legs 

 and feet greenish grey. (Jerdo/i.) 



Length 8 inches, tail 2, wing 4'2, tarsus '9, bill from gape 1*7. The 

 female is of the same size. 



The Jack Snipe is a very rare visitor to Burmah, and 1 do not know of 

 more than three or four instances of its occurrence in this country. I 

 have never personally seen a specimen shot in Burmah ; but Mr. Hume 

 notes one killed near Rangoon, one at Tonghoo, and another near the 

 mouth of the Bassein Creek . On the whole the sportsman in Burmah 

 may congratulate himself when he bags a Jack Snipe, for it is no doubt 

 an excessively rare bird. 



In summer this Snipe inhabits the more northern portions of Europe 

 and Asia; in winter it migrates south, being then found throughout 

 Europe, the northern portion of Africa, and more or less over the whole of 

 Asia as far south as Ceylon and eastwards to Formosa. 



The Jack Snipe will of course only be found in Burmah in the winter 

 months. It affects much the same sort of ground as the Common Snipe, 

 but is more restricted in its choice of locality, being fonder of (lease cover, 

 such as that which grows up in the neglected corners of fields. 



In Northern Europe the Jack Snipe breeds in June, laying tour eggs in 

 a depression in the ground, which is lined with a little grass and dead 

 leaves. 



The small size of this Snipe coupled with its rich coloration and its tail 

 of twelve soft feathers, of which the central two project beyond the others 

 a short distance, will enable any one, however inexperienced, to identify it 

 at once. 



G. nemoricola, the Wood- Snipe, was observed by Mr. Davison in the 

 south of Tenasserim (S. F. vi. p. 459) ; but as he did not actually secure 

 the bird he saw, there is a possibility of a mistake, and I consequently do 

 not insert it in my work, but content myself with giving Dr. Jerdou's 

 account of its plumage*. 



* GALLINAGO NEMORICOLA. 



" Top of the head black, with rufous-yellow longish markings ; upper part of back black, 

 the feathers margined with pale rufous-yellow, ain I i'i MI smeared bluish; M-.ij.ulars the 

 same, some of them with zigzag markings ; long dor.-al plumes black \\-iil, 

 of rufous-grey, as are must ol tiif wing-coverts; winglet and priiuary-covi i ulack 



faintly edged whitish ; quills dusky ; lower back and upper tail-c< < vd reddish and 



dusky j tail with the central feathers black at the base, chestnut with dusky bar- 

 the tip ; laterals dusky with whitish bais ; b.-n-'ath the chin white, the sides of the nock 

 ashy smeared with buff and blackish, breast ashy smeared with bull and obsnnvl v barred ; 

 the rest of the lower plumage, with the thigu-co verts, whitish with iui-ueruu> dusks Uirs 



VOL. 11. 



