HHYNCILEA CAPEXSIS. 801 



Female. Length 9-8 to 10-0 inches ; wing 5-4 ; tarsus 1-8 to 2-0 ; bill to gape (straight) 1-9 to 2-1. 



(December and June.) Crown and mesial stripe as in the male ; orbital circle and streak behind the eye white, with 

 the surrounding dark border blacker than in the male. 



Throat, cheeks, fore neck, and centre of hind neck ferruginous, paling to whitish on the chin, and deepening on the 

 chest and sides of breast into olive-black ; back and wing-coverts deep olive-green, variegated with black cross 

 rays and ashy bars, the coverts wanting the ocelli and light markings ; ground-colour of the primaries darker, and 

 the ocelli not so pale as in the male ; breast and lower parts white, passing over the dark sides of the upper 

 breast in a band round to the shoulders, where it is continued down the sides of the interscapular region as a 

 narrow buff line ; a tuft of long pure tvliite lanceolate feathers beneath the scapulars. 



I find no appreciable difference in any of the specimens I have seen killed in both seasons of the year. The amount 

 of rufous at the back of the neck is variable, some examples have more of it than others. As a rule, Ceylonese 

 birds have the hind-neck feathers tipped with brown, which, more or less, according to the amount, obscures the 

 chestnut-colour of the bases. 



Young. The nestlings much resemble the male in plumage at first. The back, wing-coverts, and quills in two 

 examples brought to me from the nest were of the same colour, and with the same spots and ocelli, but they had 

 a broad fulvous stripe bordering the scapulars. 



Young birds in a more advanced stage before me, from Calcutta, and in the national collection, are plumaged as 

 follows : — the male has the same distribution of markings as the old bird, the feathers of the head, scapulars, and 

 back being merely tipped with white, and the buff markings on the wings are more extensive than in an adult, 

 there being less of the olive-green hue ; there is more white about the throat, and the chest is paler, the lower 

 part being fulvous ; the coronal stripe is very broad. 



The female, which is perhaps a little older and in its second plumage, has the head-feathers tipped with white ; the 

 chin white, and the chestnut feathers of the fore neck mingled with whitish ones, while the dark chest-feathers 

 are broadly tipped with the same colour. 



Obs. The question has of late years been mooted as to whether the plumage of the female Painted Snipe is not 

 seasonal, and the pale spotted dress donned during non-breediug-time. Prom personal experience in Ceylon I am 

 unable to furnish any information on the subject, as all female specimens examined by me have been in the dark 

 dress : and as there is no regular breeding-season there, it will be a difficult matter to obtain satisfactory proof of 

 this alleged change of dress without examining an enormous number of specimens. I am inclined to think that 

 the female does assume, at some period, to a great extent, the dress of the male, the neck and chest entirely 

 resembling that of the other sex, but the back remaining very dark. I am supported in this view by the evidence 

 of such an example from Japan in male dress in the British Museum, which possesses the concealed white lanceolate 

 scapulars characteristic of the female. The fact of both sexes being attired when young in the male dress is 

 conducive to the opinion in question. In ' Stray Feathers ' (loc. cit.) Captain Butler notices the fact that nearly 

 all the specimens shot by him in Guzerat were in male dress, 19 presumed males having, on one occasion, been shot 

 by him without flushing a single female. No examination appears to have been made ; and it is possible that these 

 really were all males, congregated together after the manner of other species in the non-breeding period. 

 Mr. Hume considers that the females lose the chestnut collar in the winter, as examples in his possession, shot 

 in January, only show slight traces of it. There is much yet to be learnt concerning the plumage of this species, 

 but in the meantime it is only reasonable to suppose that the dark plumage of the female is not assumed until the 

 first time it breeds. 



Indian examples correspond with Ceylonese in their plumage ; females, perhaps, have more rufous-chestnut on the 

 throat and neck than the latter. A female from Malabar measures : — wing 5-5 inches ; tarsus 1-7 ; bill to gape 

 1-78. It corresponds in general plumage, but is conspicuous for having the face well covered with the black hue. 

 Females from Nepal are similar to the above, and measure: — wing 5-3 to 5 - 5 inches; tarsus l - 75 to 1-9 ; bill to 

 gape 1-85. 



Examples from China and Formosa measure: — Males: wing 5-0 to 5-2 inches ; tarsus 1-5 to 1-7; bill to gape 1-7 to 

 1-8 ; they are somewhat paler above than the generality of Ceylonese males, and have the head-stripe very broad. 



A Formosan male (?) is much paler above than Ceylonese and Indian specimens ; the olive-green colouring is predomi- 

 nated over by the very extensive buff markings, which on the scapulars and tertials take the form of broad bands 

 across both webs ; the same golden-buff bars are conspicuous on the tail, and the markings of this colour on the 

 interscapular region are very conspicuous ; there is a white lanceolate feather beneath the scapulary tuft, which 

 is perhaps a proof that the specimen is a female in male dress. For an examination of this specimen, and 



