SCOLOPAX ETJSTICULA. 807 



The following are data of the only two Ceylonese examples that have been, so far as I am aware, preserved : — 

 (a) Adult (sex?: Nuwara Eliya, Jan. 1872). Wing 8-0 inches ; tarsus 1-4 ; bill at front 3-15. (6) Female (Hakgala, 

 Feb. 1877). Length 14-0 inches ; expanse 26-0 : weight 10 oz. 



Iris dark brown ; bill slightly brownish at the base, from that fleshy, then darkening to blackish at the tip ; legs and 

 feet greenish grey, brownish on the toes (British example in flesh). 



(a) Lores, chin, and forehead fulvous grey, tinged with brown ; top of head and occiput rich blackish sepia, barred 

 with two narrow bands of rich fulvous tawny ; a darkish line down the forehead to base of bill, and a broad 

 stripe through the lores from the gape to the eye; general aspect of plumage above dark sepia-brown and 

 ferruginous, the wing-coverts and back being barred with rich rusty, and the scapulars, interscapular region, 

 lower hind neck, and tertials mottled marginally and indented with it ; the' upper back and scapulars are also 

 tipped and crossed with rich buff, mostly on the outer webs, the dark portions being sepia-black like the head ; 

 lower back and rump barred narrowly with black and ferruginous alternately ; the upper tail-coverts more rufous 

 than the rump, and the bars mottled and more wavy, some of the feathers tipped with grey ; lower wing-coverts 

 blackish brown, barred with ferruginous, which predominates at the tips ; greater wing-coverts barred chiefly 

 with buff : quills and primary-coverts dark hair-brown, barred with ferruginous on all but the first two primaries, 

 and indented with buff at the inner margins ; the first primary is edged with white, this colour indenting the 

 brown near the shaft, the second is indented with buff ; tail black, with ferruginous indentations on the outer 

 webs, and the tips, for nearly half an inch, brownish grey above and silvery white beneath. 



Beneath fulvous tawny ; chin whitish and the throat barred with brown, the lower part of the face striped with 

 the same ; the chest and breast narrowly barred with brown, the bars on the flanks bolder than elsewhere ; 

 under tail-coverts with central brown marks and cross bars ; axillaries brown, banded with fulvous buff ; under 

 wing-coverts buff, barred narrowly with brown ; the greater series brown, barred with pale buffy. 



The above description of the Nuwara-Eliya specimen, now in the possession of Mr. Holdsworth, was taken before the 

 skin was made up, when it was in a rough state, and is not as exhaustive as it might be ; yet I prefer to give 

 precedence to it as being a Ceylon-killed bird. The Hakgala example I have not examined. 



Albinos are occasionally met with. Messrs. Blakiston and Pryer speak of a specimen all creamy white, obtained at 

 Kawasaki in Japan, and now in the Milan Museum. 



Young (chick, Azores). Crown, hind neck, and centre of the back dark brown-maroon, deepening into black at the 

 forehead, and with a stripe of the same through the lores, above which, and across the crown, are stripes of buff ; 

 rest of the body above ferruginous, patched and otherwise marked with buff ; under surface rufous-buff, 

 variegated at the sides of the throat with brownish rufous. The nestling at this age is very handsome. 



Bill black, yellowish at the base, measuring at front - 6 inch. 



Nestling (about 5 weeks old : British Museum). Has much the same character of marking as an old bird. The crown 

 is black, the feathers with rufous bases ; down the hind neck is a rufous band bounded on each side by a white 

 one ; the back and wings are rufous, barred with black and patched with fulvous ; wings much as in the adult : 

 fore neck and under surface buff, with wavy transverse bars of black, and with a wash of rufous on the sides of 

 the chest. 



Yearling birds have the under surface devoid of the buff hue, the colour being dusky white ; the under tail-coverts 

 are the same instead of being rich buff, and are barred throughout from base to tips with brown, and not 

 marked with handsome pointed stripes, as in the adult ; the outer web of the 1st primary has a white edge, but 

 next the shaft it is brown, indented with the white of the margin. 



Obs. There seems to be little variation, dependent on locality, in the plumage of the Woodcock throughout its widely 

 extended habitat ; but examples from the Atlantic isles, where it is a resident species, are smaller than con- 

 tinental birds. A Madeira skin, J , in the national collection measures — wing 7 - 5 inches, bill to gape 2-42, 

 tarsus l;3j another d, from the Azores, measures — wing 6 - 9 inches, bill to gape 2-5, tarsus 1'2. 



Individual variations are noticeable in examples from the same locality or country, and are chiefly dependent on age. 

 Some birds are very dark, notably Indian and Eastern- Asiatic specimens ; others are lightly and richly coloured. 

 In some the cheeks are darkly striped, and in some there is a coalescing of bold dark markings across the throat, 

 forming an irregular band. The marking of the outer web of the first primary varies much, and was formerly 

 considered to be a sexual sign : the deeply indented white border is unquestionably a mark of nonage, and is 

 most noticeable in birds with barred under tail-coverts ; but it exists in many manifestly adult birds, while 

 in other skins in the like plumage there is either a plain white border at the base or nearly all along the quill to 



