222 snipe. 



back ash-colour, with pale edges ; greater wing coverts, scapulars, 

 and part of the second quills, ash-colour, paler on the margins, and 

 dotted with black ; quills black ; tail pale ash-colour, the two 

 middle feathers darkest ; all of them crossed with eight or nine 

 narrow, abrupt, dusky bars; shape of the tail rather rounded at the 

 end ; and the quills, when closed, exceed it a trifle in length ; legs 

 dull, pale green. 



The female is every where paler in colour; head, neck, and 

 beneath, white, streaked on the crown, nape, and behind the neck, 

 with pale dusky ; back and wings pale ash, marked as in the other 

 sex ; and in both the lesser coverts are darker than the rest of 

 the wing. 



Inhabits India ; frequents Cawnpore, in January and September, 

 called Burra Soorma ; also Surma and Surba. Found among the 

 drawings of Sir J. Anstruther and General Hardwicke. 



35.— ASIATIC SNIPE. 



LENGTH eighteen inches. Bill four inches, pale red, with a 

 dusky end ; nostrils a slit a quarter of an inch in length, and the 

 same distance from the base ; head, even with the eye, neck behind, 

 and all the upper parts, dusky, nearly black ; top of the head, back, 

 and wings, darker than the rest; beneath from the chin to the vent, 

 and sides of the head beneath the eyes, dusky white ; irides hazel ; 

 from the bill to the eye a greyish white streak ; quills black ; tail 

 pale dusky, plain, the middle feathers a trifle the shortest ; legs dusky 

 brown or black, bare part above the joint very short ; total length 

 of both seven inches ; the whole plumage plain, as to the respective 

 colours, being neither barred, nor otherwise marked above or beneath. 



Inhabits India, named Chaha-Burrah. — Sir J. Anstruther. 



