Illustrations of Indian Ornithology ; 



Description, — I shall here contcut myself vith saying that it differs in coloring 

 from the common Snipe chiefly iii the whole of the under sui-facc being barred. Other 

 shades of difference will be better appreciated by comparing a common Snipe witli the 

 figuie here given, than by the most elaborate description. 



Dimensions. — Length about ISj to 1.3 inches long — extent 19 — of wing 5^ — 

 T. Sj — bill 2A — tarsus H — I have generally found them about 5 j ounces heavy ; Mr. 

 Hodgson says, weight 7 oz. 



I shall here transcribe part of Mr. Hodgson's remarks on this bu-d. " This in- 

 teresting species forms by its size, its manners, and some points of its structure, a link 

 between the genera Scohjxix, and Gallinago, but deviates from both towards Rhynchcea, 

 by the feebleness of its soft, bowed and sub-gradated wings which have the second quill 

 longest. Its general structure is that of a Snipe, but its bUl is a "Woodcock's, and 

 the legs and feet are larger than in GaUinago. It is shj-, non-gregarious, avoids the 

 open cultivated country, and is only found in the haunts of the Woodcock, with this 

 difference in its manners, as compared with those of Scolojmx, that it is averse from the 

 interior of woods. The wings are usually fr'om f to 1 inch less than the taU, and the 

 prime and tertial qudls are equal. The tarsi differ fi'om those of the common Snipe in 

 that the scales, posteally are broken on the mesial line, whereas they are entii'e in that bird." 



