(EDICNEMUS SCOLOPAX. 973 



of olive-brown mixed up with lighter streaks and strokes of a brownish straw-colour overlying smaller marks 

 of bluish grey. In some the markings are much more linear than in others, and are collected round the centre 

 of the egg. Some examples in the series before me measure 1'96 by l - 48 inch ; 2"23 by 1"47 ; 2 - 04 by T48. 



Mr. Hume, writing of an Indian series, says that they are smaller than English specimens ; he finds the 

 ground-colour invariably yellowish white, buffy yellow, or pale buffy brown. One egg is greenish white, with 

 only a few brown specks on it ; another is stone-colour, with enormous map-like blotches or clouds on the 

 " broad half." In length they vary from l - 65 to 2-15 inches, and in breadth from l - 3 to 1*5 inch. 



Genus ESACUS. 



Bill stout and long, suddenly widened at the base ; culm en straight as far as a point exactly 

 above the gonys, where it is gently recurved to the tip ; gonys deeply angulated and ascending ; 

 gape angulated ; commissure straight from the gape-angle and then recurved. Nostrils linear, 

 wide, and placed in a capacious depression. Wings long, pointed ; the 2nd quill the longest, and 

 the 3rd longer than the 1st ; tertials exceeding the primaries. Tail rather short, of 12 feathers, 

 round at the tip. Legs long ; tibia bare much above the knee, which is enlarged. Tarsus 

 nearly twice as long as the middle toe, reticulate in front and behind ; toes stout, the basal 

 membrane well developed ; hind toe wanting. 



Head and eye large. 



6i 2 



