THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 5 71* 



Dav., ibid, vi, p. 459 ; Hume, ibid, vii, p. 39 ; Dav. and Wen, ibid, 

 p. 88 ; Ball, ibid, p. 228 ; Cripps, ibid,, p. 301 ; Hume, ibid, viii, 

 p. 69; id, ibid, p. 112; Bingham, ibid, p. 196; Scully, ibid,, p. 

 354 ; Butler, Cat. B. of Scind, p. 61 ; id, Cat. B. S. Bom. Pres., 

 p. 75; Vidal, Str. F., ix, p. 83; Bingham, ibid, p. 196; Reid, 

 ibid, x, p. 68; David, ibid, p. 320 ; Davis, ibid, p. 413; Murray, 

 Vert. Faun. Scind., p. 239; Hume, Str. Feath., xi, p. 319 



Pintail Snipe.— W. Gave., J., B. N. H. S., vi., p. 418; St. J. 

 Richardson, ibid, p. 488. 



Vernacular Names. — No natives appear to recognise the difference 

 between the Pintail and Fantail Snipes and the vernacular names 

 given to the latter apply equally to both. 



Besci^tion, Adult Male. — The Pintail Snipe differs from the 

 Fantail in colouration in having the whole of axillaries and under 

 wing coverts regularly barred throughout with black, or brown, and 

 white, the former colour being predominant. The average bird is 

 also duller and darker in its colouration, this more so on the lower 

 than the upper parts. The bill is proportionately shorter and 

 stouter and the tail consists, normally, of 26 or 28 feathers, the 

 external 8 or 9 on each side being very stiff and narrow, the outer- 

 most only about 1" in width. 



The outer web of the first primary is, in all text books, said to be 

 brown, but this is not quite correct, as in a large series one finds 

 many specimens with very pale outer webs, though these may 

 never be quite white. 



"Length 9-75" to 10-9"; expanse 15-5 to 17-4; wing 4-95 

 to 5-42 ; tail from vent 2-0 to 2-57 ; tarsus 1-19 to 1-27 ; bill from 

 gape 2-12 to 2-5 ; bill at front 2-2 to 2-6 ; weight 3-3 oz. to 4-75 

 oz., average 3-91 " (Hume). 



k ' The legs and feet are greenish or greenish leaden, but especial- 

 ly late in the spring these parts exhibit, in some birds, a distinct 

 olive yellow tinge ; the irides are deep brown ; the bill generally has 

 the gape, the extreme base and margins of the upper mandible 

 greenish or olive, but sometimes some or all of them are unicolorous 

 with the rest of the basal four-sevenths of the upper mandible 

 which are usually pale hoary brown ; on the other hand even these 

 at times show a greenish tinge ; the terminal three-sevenths of the 



