SCOLOPACIN^!. 345 



to 5'42 ; tail, 2'0 to 2'57 ; tarsus, 119 to 1'27 ; bill from gape, 212 

 to 2'25 ; bill at front, 2'2 to 2'6 ; weight, 3'3 oz. to 475 oz. ; average, 

 3'91 oz. 



?. Length, lO'O to 1117; expanse, 161tol8'25; wing, 5 '0 

 to 5'58 ; tail, 2'0 to 2'67 ; tarsus, 1'2 to 1'35 ; bill from gape, 2'38 

 to 2-62; bill at front, 2'45 to 27 ; Weight, 375 oz. to 51 oz. ; 

 average, 4'2 oz. ; average of both sexes, 4'06 oz. 



Bill blackish-horny at tip ; deep brown in the centre, greenish- 

 horny at base ; irides deep brown ; legs and feet leaden-greenish. 



Very similar to the Common Snipe in color ; but the under 

 wing-coverts and axillaries richly barred with dusky and white. 



Such is Dr. Jerdon's description, which is very meagre. Mr. 

 Hume in the " Game Birds of India" has fully discussed the 

 differences. 



1st The bill of the Fantail is more or less spatulate, that of 

 the Pintail never so. 



2nd. In the Pintail the axillaries and the entire wing- 

 lining, except the lower greater-coverts, are invariably strongly 

 and distinctly barred with blackish-brown. This is never the 

 case with Common Snipe ; the median secondary lower-coverts 

 are always unbarred, forming a white unbarred patch in the centre 

 of the upper portion of the lower surface of the closed wing. 



3rd. In the Common Snipe, the tail consists of fourteen 

 ordinary shaped soft feathers, occasionally sixteen, rarely twelve. 

 In the Pintail there are only ten such feathers, but on either side 

 of these are from five to nine very narrow, rather rigid, feathers, 

 making up a total of twenty to twenty-eight feathers. 



There ought not to be the slightest difficulty in discriminating 

 this species from the next, but sportsmen and others constantly 

 overlook the differences, hence the difficulty in ascertaining even 

 approximately the relative proportions they bear to each other in 

 any one given district. 



The Pintail Snipe is of course only a cold weather visitant, 

 and occurs throughout the region. In Sind the Fantails are much 

 the commonest, in fact, I ought to say that the Pintail is 

 decidedly uncommon ; further south, they occur in greater 

 numbers, until at Bombay they are just as common as the 

 Fantails. 



Gallinago gallinaria, 6m. 



871. Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 614 ; (G. scolopacinus, 

 Bon.) ; Butler, Guzerat ; Stray Feathers, Yol. IY, p. 15 ; Deccan, 

 Stray Feathers, Yol. IX, p. 428 ; Murray's Yertebrate Zoology 

 of Sind, p. 240 ; G. ccelestis, Fren. ; Game Birds of India, 

 Yol. Ill, p. 359 ; Swinhoe and Barnes, Central India ; Ibis, 

 1885, p. 133. 



THE COMMON OR FANTAIL SNIPE. 



CTiaha, Hin. 

 J. Length, 9'0 to 1T3; expanse, 15'0 to 17'5 ; wing, 4'9 to 



