THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 3 



bills. The only birds in this family (except the Snipes) in which the 

 bill is as long or longer than twice the length of the tarsus, are the 

 females of one or two species of Curlews and one or two species of 

 Sandpiper, none of which have all the toes cleft to the base. The 

 genus Scolopax may therefore be diagnosed as follows : — 



" Charadriidae having the bill twice as long as the tarsus, and all 

 the toes oleft to the base. " 



He, however, comes to the conclusion in this paper that one 

 eannot divide the group into genera and that these species must all 

 come under the one genus Scolopax. 



He first shews that they cannot be divided by any structural diag- 

 nosis, the two main points of which may be said to be the amount of 

 feathering on the tibiae and the number of tail feathers. 



He. however, points out that there are two characteristics which 

 divide five members of the group from all others, viz., the nature of 

 the markings on the head and the curious silvery tips to the feathers 

 of the tail underneath. 



These characteristics appear quite sufficiently satisfactory and it is 

 upon these that most naturalists now divide the genera Scolopax and 

 Gallinago. 



Subfamily — Scolopacxn;E. 



The members of this Subfamily may be distinguished from all 

 other birds of the Charadriidae Family by having no trace of a web 

 between the toes and by having the bill about twice as long as the 

 tarsus. Another striking feature of the Snipes is the curious position 

 of the eyes which are placed very far back in the head just above 

 the anterior edge of the ear-orifice. In this country we have three 

 genera. Scolopax, which contains the Woodcock only, Gallinago, 

 containing the true Snipes, and Rostratula containing the birdfr 

 generally called Painted Snipes. The genus Scolopax includes, 

 according to Sharpe, only two species, viz., rustzeula and saturata, 

 The former, the common Woodcock, is migratory summering in the 

 Himalayas and extending in the winter to the Plains of India ; the 

 latter is found only in Java and New Guinea and but little is known 

 about it. Of the genus Galiinago Sharpe recognises 20 species somfr 

 of which are migratory and some are not ; of these seven species and 

 one doubtful sub-species (raddei) are found in India. The genus 



