THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 9 



60 Woodcock shot during the breeding season in the Azores only 

 four were females and that out of eleven young birds sent him from 

 Cumberland only one proved on dissection to be of that sex. As, 

 however, he himself remarks, when one goes in for shooting roding 

 Woodcock it can hardly be expected to get many females (fortunately). 

 As regards the young birds this may be only an exceptional case 

 and it is hardly safe to take this as an example of the general rule. 



In India there appears to be no difference in the numbers of the 

 two sexes. Unfortunately in both the Calcutta and Bombay collec- 

 tions we have but few sexed specimens and it is to be hoped sportsmen 

 will help in settling this question one way or the other. 



Yet another point about our Indian Woodcock which is unsettled 

 is the question as to whether or not the Indian bird differs in any 

 respect from that found in Europe and Northern Asia. 



It has hitherto been considered a generally accepted fact that out- 

 Indian Woodcock is a smaller bird than the English but I cannot 

 endorse this. My reasons are as follows. Every one who has studied 

 migration knows that young birds are more erratic in their travels, 

 travel greater distances and to much more unusual districts and. 

 countries than the older birds. Now certainly all those Woodcock ob- 

 tained in the plains and lower hills of India and possibly all which 

 are shot south of the Himalayas are birds which are on migration for 

 the cold weather and those which travel furthest and are most often 

 shot are the young birds of the year, hence because the birds we shoot 

 are smaller than the average English bird we have come to believe, 

 that the whole race is smaller. This idea is not, however, borne out by 

 my researches which have shown me that fully adult Indian birds are 

 as big as European specimens. Thus I have had two female Wood- 

 cocks sent me (shot off the nests) which measured in wing 8'30" 

 whereas my largest bird shot on migration is well under 8*0". 



Hume says that he thinks the Indian bird is smaller than the 

 English but stultifies the value of his opinion by what he says later 

 on, when in talking of the triangular emarginations on the primary 

 quills of the wing, he writes, Yarrell says : — ' k These marks are 

 indications of youth ? ' and then Hume adds u It is a curious thing 

 that out of 27 Indian-killed specimens now before me, these triangu- 

 lar marks are present in every specimen, only in two or three have 

 they disappeared from the basal half of the feather. Our Museum 

 2 



