370 THE COMMON OR FANTAIL SNIPE. 
I can only say that he must have weighed comparatively 
few birds, or that he was unlucky in the birds he met with. 
Of course all my weights were taken from freshly-shot birds, 
weighed, if not wetted in falling, then and there, or at any rate, 
if not sooner dry, at the mid-day halt. There is a material loss 
of weight, especially in Upper India, in the first twelve hours after 
death. I may add that it is useless to weigh live birds pur- 
chased in the market, since astounding as this may appear, these 
average nearly 1 oz. lighter than freshly-shot ones. Indeed 
I have bought large old females of the present species that 
certainly in good condition never weighed under 44 ozs., weighing 
barely 3 ozs. 
The bills have the terminal one-fourth or more deep brown 
to blackish ; the rest pale brown, or horny brown with a yellow- 
ish tinge, dark along the edges, often brownish green just 
at the base of the upper mandible, and generally yellowish or 
yellowish green or olive, on the basal fourth (more or less) of 
the lower mandible ; the irides are deep brown, almost black ; 
the legs and feet are ordinarily greenish, often pale olive 
green, or greenish olive, but also at times pale greenish drab 
and greenish grey, and as the season advances they acquire 
a stronger yellow tinge—the legs of birds killed in April and 
May being often a distinct yellow green; there is often a 
dusky shade over the joints, and the claws are deep brown to 
black, 
THE PLATE, I mean Mr. Neale’s plate of our present species 
(there designated Gallinago scolopacinus), might, perhaps, be 
worse. I cannot say that I ever saw a Fantail, with quite such 
a huge pure white band down the centre of the forehead, or 
with quite so much fiery rusty on the back ; but with the name 
clearly written below it, most people will be able to make out 
what it is intended to represent. This species does not 
normally vary very much, though some are darker, some lighter, 
some greyer, browner or more rufous everywhere; and in some 
too the pale margins of the scapulars are very broad and con- 
spicuous, far more so than in the plate ; while in others they are 
nearly obsolete, and again these pale margins vary froma 
rich rufous buff to pale fawn colour or buffy white. 
But abnormal albinoid or fawn-coloured varieties are not 
very uncommon in India; and besides these a very dark or 
melanoid form, generally known as Sabine’s Snipe (and in 
former times considered specifically distinct) has been 
occasionally met with in England and Ireland and once in 
France (Harting). 
The plate of the tail and wing lining of this species (ante 
p. 332.) is fairly good, but the lower tail-coverts are usually 
less brightly tinted, paler and duller coloured in fact. 
