RHYNCHjEA CAPENS18. 



(THE PAINTED SNIPE.) 



Scolopax capensis, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 246 (17GG). 



Ballus bengalensis, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 263 (1766). 



Bhynchwd orientals, Horsf. Tr. Linn.- Soc. xiii. p. 193 (1821). 



Bhynchcea variegata, Vieill. Gal. Ois. ii. p. 109, pi. 240 (1824); Schlegel, Mus. P.-B. 

 Seolopaces, p. 16 (1864). 



Bhynchcea picta, Gray, Sykes, P. Z. S. 1S32, p. 164. 



Bhynchcea bengalensis (Linn.), Blyth, Cat. B. Mus. A. S. B. p. 273 (1849); Kelaart, Pro- 

 dromus, Cat, p. 135 (1852); Layard, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1S54, xiv. p. 266; Jerdon, 

 B. of Intl. iii. p. 677 (1864); Blyth, Ibis, 1867, p. 167; Blanford, Zool. Abyss, p. 432 

 (1870); Swinhoe, P. Z. S. 1871, p. 40S ; Holdsw. P. Z. S. 1872, p. 473 ; Hume, Str. 

 Feath. 1873, p. 235; Salvadori, Ucc. di Borneo, p. 335 (1874); Legge, Ibis, 1874, 

 p. 28 ; id. J. A. S. (Ceylon Branch) p. 53 (1874) ; Oates, Str. Feath. 1875, p. 346 ; 

 Hume, Nests and Eggs, iii. p. 586 ; Legge, Ibis, 1875, p. 402 ; Butler & Hume, Str. 

 Feath. 1876, p. 15 ; Fairbank, t. c. p. 263 ; Butler & Hume, ibid. 1877, p. 223 ; Wardlaw 

 Ramsay, Ibis, 1877, p. 469; Blakiston & Pryer, Ibis, 1878, p. 225; Hume, Str. Feath. 

 1878 (B. of Tenass.), p. 459; Davidson & Wender, ibid. 1878, vii. p. 89; Ball, t.c. 

 p. 228; Cripps, t.c. p. 302; Hume (List Ind. B.), ibid. 1879, p. 112. 



Bhynchcea capensis (Linn.), Layard, B. of S Afr. no. 625 (1867); Shelley, B. of Egypt, 

 p. 250, pi. xi. (1872); Von Heuglin, Orn. N.Ost-Afr. t. ii. p. 1211 (1873); Walden, 

 Trans. Zool. Soc. 1875, ix. p. 235; Barratt, Ibis, 1876, p. 212; Tweeddale, P. Z. S. 

 1877, p. 551. 



Cape Snipe, Latham ; Becassine du cap de Bonne-Espe ranee, Bee. de Madagascar, Bee. de la 

 Chine, Buffon ; Goldschnepfe of German authors; King Snipe, "Painter," Sportsmen in 

 Ceylon. Pengung, Java (Horsf.); Chose// hindi, Arabic (Von Heugl.) ; Tama-shigi 

 Japan (Blakiston) ; Bav-Bav, Madagascar (E. Newton). 



Baja kceswatuwa, Baja watuwa, Sinhalese. 



Adult null'. Length 9-5 to 0-8 inches ; wing 5'2 to 5-4 ; tail 1*5 to 1-6 ; tarsus 1*7 to 1-8'; mid toe and claw 1-05 to 

 1-75 ; bill to gape (straight) 1-8 to 1*9. 



Iris brown ; bill, basal half of upper mandible and all but tip of lower dusky greenish (palest in the female), changing 

 to reddish or livid brown on the remainder ; legs and feet sickly green or greenish leaden. 



Lores and crown olivaceous blackish, with a buff mesial stripe down to the base of bill, and a broad band of the same 

 behind and passing round the eye ; ueck behind and on the sides drab-grey, mottled with black, and paling on the 

 fore neck and chest, across which the colour is edged with blackish ; a dark stripe below the orbital band; chin, 

 gorge, and lower face whitish buff, passing into the colour of the fore neck ; back, lesser tertial cover! s, rump. 

 and tail cinereous, with black cross-peucillings and bars and spots of buff-yellow ; interscapulars, scapulars, and 

 tertials clouded with greenish black and glossy olivaceous brown, with a purple sheeu in some lights, many of the 

 feathers barred and marked with buff, and some of the scapulars with broad central and lateral stripes of buff 

 and white ; wing-coverts olivaceous green, barred and spotted with buff, the spots edged with black ; quills fine 

 grey, with wavy cross rays of black and some bar-spots of white near the tips of the secondaries, the outer webs 

 spotted with large black-edged ocelli of buff, the interspaces towards the base in the outer primaries being black ; 

 breast, lower parts, axillaries, and median under wing-coverts white, passing through the olive and blackish sides 

 of the upper breast in a band, which extends round to the shoulders. 



