THE WOOD-SNIPE. 331 
in the female; the back of the legs and soles fleshy, sometimes 
pinky, sometimes bluish or dusky; the claws horny brown 
to almost black ; of the bill nearly the terminal one-third is 
brown to blackish brown; the basal two-thirds much paler 
and with a tinge sometimes reddish fleshy, sometimes yellow- 
ish fleshy, sometimes livid, sometimes drab. 
THE PLATE is a very fair picture of the specimen figured, 
but the legs are not correctly coloured, and the bill is quite 
wrongly drawn; it should be much higher at the base, and 
thick at the point, like those of all Snipe, and not skewer-like. 
But the species is a very variable one; in the majority of 
specimens the barring on the lower surface is broader, more 
uniform and continuous, and less crescentic and patchy than 
in the specimen figured. On the wings the pale barring is 
often greyer and less rufous; the back and scapulars are 
often much less cut up with rufous bands than would appear 
from the figure. In one specimen these parts are plain black, 
without a single cross bar, only each feather very broadly 
margined with greyish rufous ; the amount and colour of the 
markings on the upper surface vary much, being sometimes 
much more profuse, sometimes much greyer, sometimes much 
more rufous. 
One other mistake I notice in the plate ; the second dark face / 
stripe should be lower down and further apart from the upper 
or eye stripe, and should not have been made to join this. 
This species seems to be generally confounded by sportsmen 
with the next, the Eastern Solitary Snipe. But they are really 
very different looking birds, this being more of the Woodcock, 
that more of the Snipe. A few of the more conspicuous differ- 
ences may be pointed out :— 
WOOD SNIPE. 
Wing, 5°4 to 5°7. 
7 
Bill deep and Woodcock-like at base. 
Height of upper mandible at margin 
of feathers, fully 0°3. 
Outer margins of first three primaries 
nearly uniform with rest of’ fea- 
ther. 
Abdomen, vent, and lower tail-co- 
verts closely barred. 
Margins of scapulars rufous. 
General aspect darker and duller ; 
back with few broad, dull rufous 
markings. 
EASTERN SOLITARY SNIPE. 
Wing, 6°25 to 68. 
Bill less deep and more Snipe-like at 
base. 
Height of upper mandible at margin 
of feathers, barely 0°2. 
Outer margins of first three pri- 
maries pure white. 
Abdomem, vent, and lower tail-co- 
verts. almost unbarred. 
Margins of scapulars whz‘ze. 
General aspect lighter and brighter ; 
back with numerous bright rufous 
and white markings. 
In this species the tail is usually composed of sixteen or 
eighteen feathers, with the four or five outer feathers on each 
side narrowed and stiff, and of a nearly uniform grey brown. 
