240 



SOOLOPACID^. 



large oval rufous or rufoua buff patch, and a iiavrow subterminal dark 

 baud, tipped pale rufous or the colour of the oval patch ; primaries and 

 their coverts, also the secondaries, pale brown or dusky, narrowly 

 margined at the tip with white, both webs anicolorous. 



Length. — 9-75 to 10 inches, wing 4'8 to 5'4, tail 2 to 2'5, tarsus ri2 

 to r25. Females are larger. Legs and feet plumbeous with a greenish 

 tinge, irides deep brown, bill 2'2 to 2'6, gape and base of bill greenish, 

 rest of bill pale horny with a dusky tip for about one-third its terminal 

 length. In the females the bills average from 2 '45 to 2-7. 



Hab. — Nearly throughout India, rare in the Punjab, N. W. Pro- 

 vinces and Sind, also in Rajputana, Kutch aud Kattiawar; fairly 

 common in N. Guzerat, Central India and Khandeish. In Bombay, 

 Ooncan generally, and the Deccan, as well in the Nizam's Provinces, it 

 is plentiful, also in Lower Bengal, east and west of the Brahmapootra. 

 It is recorded from Araccan, Pegu, Tennaserim, the Andamans and 

 Nicobars, where it is most commonly met with. This snipe is a mi- 

 grant ; arrives in Sind about the middle of August, and leaves about 

 the end of March or middle of April. Rice fields, mud swamps, and 

 the vicinity of large rivers, jheels and tanks, where there are sedges and 

 rushes, are the selected spots of the Pin-tail, at least in Sind. 



Gallinago scolopacina, Bp. ; P. E. 883; OouJd. B. Eur. pi. 321,2 ; 



Jenl. B. Ind. iii. p. 674, No. 871 ; Murray, HdbL, Zool, §-c., Sind, p. 

 214. Gallinago gallinarln, Gmel.j Str. F. vol, ii. 294, 335. {Soorkhah, 

 Sind.) — The Common Snipe. 



Crown o/the head black, with a mesial longitudinal white, yellowish, 

 or rusty white line; a superciliary on each side from the base of the 

 upper mandible of the same colour, and a dark streak below it to the 

 eye ; sides of the head spotted with dusky grey, tinged with ferruginous 

 brown ; chin and throat white, or nearly white ; neck on the sides 

 and in front yellowish white, spotted with brown; breast white, 

 brown, pale yellowish or ferruginous on the upper part, and spotted 

 with dusky; the sides greyish white, barred with dark brown; back 

 and scapulars velvetty black, the feathers broadly edged with yellow, and 

 barred and spotted with chestnut brown ; the yellow edges to the 



