THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 581 



Just as there are pale and melanistie forms of the Fantail Snipe 

 so are there of the Pintail. 



Of the latter type there is, however, but one at present on record, 

 that is the one recorded by Hume in Game-Birds . Of this he 

 writes : " Before the mutiny I had a specimen procured near Dacca 

 which was everywhere blackish dusky, darker than either of the 

 only two Sabine's Snipe I ever saw, but very similar to these ; but 

 alike in these and in all the albinoid specimens I have seen, the 

 wing lining and axillaries differed but little from the normal type, 

 and had not participated, at any rate to tlje same extent, in the 

 general change or loss of colour." 



The pale, or albinoid specimens, as Hume terms them, are 

 almost equally common in both species. Hume writes : " I have a 

 fme example now before me, procured by my friend Mr. J. C. Par- 

 kin near Calcutta. The lower surface does not much differ from the 

 normal type, except that the markings on the breast and flanks are 

 pale brownish grey, but the entire upper surface is a mixture of 

 pale cream colour and pale brownish grey. I have seen at least 

 half a dozen similar creamy coloured birds in the course of the last 

 thirty years. I also once shot one that was snow-white everywhere 

 with only faint traces of grey markings." 



The Bombay Natural History Society possesses three pale speci- 

 mens of G. stenura and there is a fourth in the Indian Museum, 

 Calcutta, all of which are very similar in their colouration to the 

 pale specimens of G. coelestis already described. The Bombay birds, 

 curiously enough, both have a few feathers of the scapulars and tail 

 normally, or partly normally coloured, a fact I have also noticed 

 regarding some of the pale specimens of the Fantail. The Indian 

 Museum bird has a few normally coloured feathers on the upper 

 back and appears to be moulting into normal plumage as these fea- 

 thers are all new. 



Another specimen in the Indian Museum is very beautiful, the 

 ground is a pure white, but the markings are of a curious vinous 

 grey pale everywhere with a few deeper markings, shewing on the 

 scapulars. 



In describing Gallinago stenura it has already been said that this 

 snipe normally has 26 or 28 tail-feathers of which the lateral 8 or 



