SNIPES-PAINTED SNIPES. 267 



arches her neck, and, in mazy circles, passes and repasses close before the 

 harassed bachelor. He turns his breast first to one side, then to the other, 

 but there is his gentle wooer ever pressing her suit before him. Frequently 

 he takes flight to another part of the pool, all to no purpose. If, with 

 affected indifference, he tries to feed, she swims along side by side, almost 

 touching him, and at intervals rises on wing above him, and, poised a foot 

 or two above his body, makes a half-dozen quick, short wing-strokes, produc- 

 ing a series of sharp whistling noises in rapid succession. In the course of 

 time, it is said, water will wear away the hardest rock, but it is certain that 

 time and importunity have their full effect upon the male phalarope, and 

 soon all are comfortably married, while materfamilias no longer needs to use 

 her seductive ways and charming blandishments to draw his notice. About 

 the first of June the dry rounded side of a little knoll, near some small pond, 

 has four dark heavily-marked eggs, laid in a slight hollow or whatever lining 

 the spot affords, or, more rarely, upon a few dry straws and grass-blades, 

 brought and loosely laid together by the birds. Here the captive male is 

 introduced to new duties, and spends half his time on the eggs, while the 

 female keeps about the pool close by." 



Snipes and sandpipers differ from plovers in having a long bill, with no 

 "dertrum." The latter name is applied to the swelling of the end of the 

 bill, which makes this portion higher than the middle or the 

 basal part. Similar swellings are seen in pigeons. The bill The Snipes. 

 in many of the snipes is widened at the tip and is pitted, but Sub-family 

 it is not deeper at the end than at any other part of its Scolopaeimx. 

 length. The nasal groove or depression in which the nostrils 

 are'placed is continued through nearly the whole line of the bill. The snipes 

 and sandpipers, moreover, differ from the 'Totanince or Tatters in having 

 their long toes cleft to the bases, without any connecting web between the 

 basal joints. 



The sub-family Scolopaeinw may be divided into two main groups, the 

 snipes and woodcocks, which have the eye placed far back in the head, 

 almost on the ear-opening, while the sandpipers have the 

 eye placed as in other ordinary wading birds. One of the The Painted 

 most curious genera belonging to this sub-family is that of the Snipes. 

 painted snipes (Rostratnla), which contains three species, one, Genus 



ti. semicollaris, being confined to South America, while R. Rostratula. 

 capensis is found in Africa and India as far north as Japan, 

 li. australis taking its place on the Australian continent. In these painted 

 snipes, which resemble ordinary snipes in their habits, we meet with the 

 same peculiarity as in the phalaropes, viz. that the female is handsomer in 

 plumage than the male. The latter is a grey bird, with rounded spots of 

 golden buff on the wing-coverts and quills, while the female is not only 

 larger, but has chestnut on the hind neck, and in the hen of R. capensis on 

 the throat also. The South American JR. semicollaris, however, does nofc 

 differ in the plumage of the sexes. In Chili and Peru occurs the curious 

 Phefjornis mitchelli, which has a chestnut neck like lihynchwa, but has no 

 hind toe. 



The true woodcocks (Scolopax) are only two in number, our own well-known 

 species, and a dark form resident in the mountains of Java and New Guinea, 

 called S. saturata. In North America, however, there is a small form called 

 Philohela minor, which is distinguished by its attenuated outer primaries; and 

 in the island of Bourou, in the Malay Archipelago, occurs a peculiar woodcock 



