SNIPE. 201 



the eyes the same, passing towards the hindhead, and ending in a 

 point; sides of the head, throat, and neck deep brown ; upper part 

 of the back, the scapulars, and wing coverts green ; lower part of 

 the back, and rump, upper tail coverts, and under parts of the body 

 white ; prime quills purple, the outer webs marked with five orange 

 spots; the secondaries are green, and as long as the greater quills; 

 those nearest the body white; tail purple, marked with orange spots; 

 legs greenish yellow. 



Inhabits Bengal, chiefly abounding on the flat borders of jeels, 

 or among the small islands of their interior ; but as the sport of 

 taking them is carried on during the mid-day heats, the sportsman is> 

 for the most part, obliged to wade up to the waist in water, whilst 

 the upper part of the body is exposed to a burning sun : hence this 

 pursuit is most injurious to the constitution, and has been the death 

 of hundreds.* 



C— Cape Snipe, Ind. Orn.ii. 717. 10. s. Gen. Syn. Sup. 244. 9. E. 



Bill yellow, swelling at the end of both mandibles, the colour 

 yellowish green; crown dusky; eyes large, and black; round each 

 a circle of yellow feathers, pointing in a line behind ; cheeks and 

 throat white; back slaty blue, spotted with black, and bounded the 

 whole length by a yellow line; the scapulars most elegantly marked 

 with narrow black lines, on a bluish ground, and the feathers edged 

 with semicircular lines of bluish and black; the rest of the wing 

 tawny, with black semicircles, pointing reverse to the former; tail 

 like the scapulars, but marked with large tawny spots; breast brown 

 above, black beneath ; belly, vent, and thighs white ; legs pale ash. 



This last in my Collection ; killed at Tanjore, by Capt. Wood. 



* Oriental Field Sports,], p. 278. 



VOL. IX. D D 



