214 THE AVIFAUNA OF MOUNT 



feathers number 24, in others 22, (possibly in some only 20). 

 The lateral tail-feathers vary from seven to nine on each side. 

 (Mr. Marshall says six and Mr. Cripps seven. Mr. Le Messurier 

 also says six. "*S. F./' Vol. III., p. 380.) 



Gr. SCOlopacinUS, Bonap. 



1112. 5-36. 2-62 287. 2*81. 17 87. ? do. 



11-5 536. 3- 2-87. 2 86. 175. ? do. 



Legs and feet, pale greenish olive ; bill, horny brown ; 

 darkening towards the tip ; irides, brownish black. Fourteen 

 tail-feathers. 



[I must adhere to what I said, Vol. II., p. 294. 



" First as regards the bill, of course specimens of the same 

 sex of both species must be compared. The females in both 

 species have considerably longer bills than the males, and 

 it will not, therefore, do to compare males of the one against 

 females of the other. Taking a number of stenura from all 

 parts of India at random, the bills in the males vary from 2'2 

 to 2*4, of the females from 2*5 to 2'65 ; in scolopacinus the bills 

 of the males vary from 2 - 5 to 2'6, in the females from 2*7 to 

 2'9. I am, therefore, certainly of opinion that the bill of our 

 present species is decidedly shorter, sex for sex, than that of scolo- 

 pacinus. Then as regards the richly-barred under wing-coverts; 

 in stenura the axillaries and the entire wing-lining, except the 

 lower greater coverts, are invariably, to judge from my large 

 series, strongly and distinctly barred with blackish brown. This, 

 according to my experience, is never the case in scolopacinus. 

 In many specimens there is no barring at all, properly 

 speaking, on the lower surface of the wing, but even where 

 the axillaries are strongly barred, 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. I have been unable to detect a single excep- 

 tion to this rule, and believe it to hold good universally." 



Now since this was written I have examined hundreds of 

 both species, I might probably say thousands, for I have exa- 

 mined them morning after morning for months during each of 

 two cold seasons in the Calcutta market, into which they are 

 both brought daily, always in scores, often in hundreds, and 

 I have been uuable to detect a single exception to what I have 

 above stated. 



