180 



GALLINAGO. 



Genus GALLINAGO. 



From gaUina=a, hen, feminine of an obsolete adjective galUnus, from galluses, cook. The 

 termination is adjectival, as if from gallinax, like virago from virax. 



Tibia bare for small space. Tail of twelve to twenty-eight feathers. Pale 

 bands on head and scapular longitudinal. Two notches in posterior margin of 

 breast-bone. Inner secondaries as long as primaries. 



Scattered all over the world, and breed in northern parts of Europe and Asia. 

 Females larger than males. 



(i.) With broad red suhterminal tail-hand. Lower breast and abdomen white 



and not transversely barred. Pale median band on crown. 



187. Gallinago stenura. The Pintail Snipe. 



Chaha, N.W.P. ; Bharka, Nepal; Chegga, Lower Bengal; Cherayga, Asiwm,; 



Cheklonbi, Manipur; Tibud, Matnagiri; Oolan, S. India; Birku, Malaya; Kaswatua, 



Ceylon. 



Maddur, 5.11.80. 



^ 9f" to 10"; 4 oz. ? 10" to llj"; 4i oz. Legs grey-green. BiU 2J", 

 red-brown. Like G. ccelestis, in colour, but duller. No transverse marks on outer 

 primaries. Outer web of first primary brown. Outer tail stififened (see illustration, 

 p. 9). Normally twenty-six tail-feathers (ten soft and broad in centre and eight 

 narrow, stiff ones on each side). The side pin feathers vary from six to nine on 

 each side and are slightly curved, from l^" to If" long, of a dusky colour, with 

 yellow tips, and less than ^" wide (see illustration.) Under wing-coverts and 

 axillaries richly barred dusky and white. 



Breeds far north in E. Siberia, and migrates in winter to S.E. Asia and the 

 Malay Archipelago. Arrives in India and leaves later than G. ccelestis. In 1889 

 first bird was reported on 17th August. Common in S. India, Ceylon, and 

 Burma. (J. 870. B. 1485. H. & M. iii. 339.) 



Also G. megala. $ 9J". 9 lOJ". With central tail of six feathers and seven outer ones 

 on each side attenuated and less than \" in width. From E. Siberia, migrating south by Japan 

 and China to the Philippines and the Moluccas. 



