PAINTED SNIPE. 497 



The best known representative of the genus is the common painted snipe 

 {Rhynchcea capensis) — so familiar to all snipe-shooters in Bengal — which is dis- 

 tributed all over Africa south of the Sahara, Madagascar, Arabia, India, Ceylon, 

 Burma, and the Malayan region, and thence to the Philippines, China, Southern 

 Japan, etc. This is one of the two largest species, and is specially characterised 

 by the large number of buff eye-like spots on the primary quills of the wings. 

 The adult female is somewhat the larger and more brightly coloured bird, and 

 may always be recognised by the olive-green wing-coverts, in which each feather 

 is crossed by nearly a dozen narrow dark bars. In the adult female the neck is 

 deep chestnut, shading into black on the breast ; and the outermost of the inner 

 secondaries are white, forming a conspicuous stripe. The adult male, on the other 

 hand, has only two dark bars on each feather of the wing-coverts, with a buff 

 patch between them. In both sexes the quills of the wings are olivaceous grey, 

 with narrow dark bars, and a series of five or more buff eye-like spots on the outer 

 webs, and the inner webs with similar spots alternating with white bars. The 

 olive-grey tail has four or five rows of these same buff spots on both webs of the 

 feathers, all of which are tipped with buff. The plumage of the upper-parts is 

 more or less olivaceous, with the feathers marked by fine zigzag lines ; while the chin 

 and lower breast are white, the white area of the latter passing on to the shoulder 

 to form a stripe on the scapular region. In addition to the pale stripe down the 

 middle of the head, there is likewise a light area round each eye. The Australian 

 species {R. australis) may be distinguished by having two instead of four buff 

 spots on the outer web of the eighth primary quill ; while the female is peculiar 

 in possessing a much convoluted windpipe. The South American painted 

 snipe (R. semicollaris), wandering in summer as far south as Patagonia and 

 wintering in Peru and Brazil, is a much smaller bird than either of the others, 

 with conspicuous large round white spots on the black wing-coverts. Differing 

 from the true snipe in their shorter beaks, and low, flapping flight, the painted 

 snipe haunt the same marshy districts as the latter; and although they 

 afford but poor sport, the beauty of one of these birds as it falls on the ground 

 with outstretched wings and tail displaying the spots is quite unrivalled. 

 Although resident throughout the year in India, the common species has to 

 change its quarters a good deal in the drier districts of that country, and is 

 only a migrant to the north-west. When breeding, they are always found in pairs; 

 and, so far as the writer's experience goes, this is generally the case in Lower 

 Bengal all through the colder months, but at certain times of the year Mr. Hume 

 says that they are more frequently met with in small parties. The number of 

 eggs seems to be four ; and both parent birds are always in the neighbourhood 

 of the nest. The young birds, when first hatched, have the beak quite short. 

 Woodcock and The extreme length of the slender beak, which is more than 



Snipe. twice that of the metatarsus, serves at once to distinguish these 

 birds from their relatives, with whom alone they agree in having the toes 

 completely free from webs. The long and straight beak is swollen at the 

 sides, and soft and rugose at the tip, with the laterally-placed and basal 

 nostrils covered with a membrane. The long wings are generally pointed, while 

 the rounded tail comprises a variable number of feathers. Although in all the 



VOL. IV. — 32 



