390 THE PAINTED SNIPE. 
since the difference in size between an old male and a young 
female is not so apparent. 
The following is a resumé of the dimensions of apparently 
adult birds only :— 
Males.—Length, 9°25 to 10'0 ; expanse, 16°8 to 18'0; wing, 4'9 
to 5'2; tail from vent, 1°5 to 1°8; tarsus, 1°65 to 1°83; bill az 
Jront, 1°65 to 1°85 ; weight, 3°5 ozs. to 4'9 ozs. 
Females —Length, 9°75 to 10°89; expanse, 180 to 19°25; 
wing, 5°25 to 56; tail from vent, 1°6 to 2°0; tarsus, 1°75 to 1°96; 
bill at front, 1°8 to 2°05; weight, 4°4 ozs to 6°42 ozs. 
The legs and feet are generally greenish, usually a pale 
yellowish green, or greenish yellow, often greyer, or duskier, 
or somewhat hoary on the joints and toes ; sometimes, however, 
they are a deep olive, sometimes pale bluish overlaid with a 
greenish tinge, and sometimes simply dull pale green ; the claws 
are brown, sometimes paler, sometimes darker. 
The irides vary from hazel to very deep brown, and have 
sometimes a greenish or olive tinge. | 
The bill is very variable ; typically it is a pale fleshy brown 
darker or purer brown towards the tip, and with a greenish tinge 
towards the base ; it is subject, however, to a good deal of varia- 
tion, and I quote in illustration of this a few of my notes :— 
@ 2nd February—bill, reddish brown. 
dé Ist December—bill, pale, rather fleshy, brownish olive, duller towards tips. 
@ 4th a »3.  culmen, and terminal 3-5ths pale yellowish fleshy ; sides 
of basal 2-5ths with a brownish green tinge. 
2 aS 33 pale brownish fleshy, olivaceous on basal 2-5th. 
2 Ist +5 3, pale pinkish brown, deeper horny brown towards tips. 
é 95 », pale brown, with a slight olive tinge. darker towards tips. 
é <5 », pale pinkish or fleshy brown, with more or less of an olive 
tinge and terminal portions deeper brown. 
@ 21st September—bill, greenish, yellowish fleshy at tip of both mandibles. 
2 troth June—bill, basal 2-5ths greenish blue, pinkish elsewhere. 
And Oates says of one, a male, “basal half of bill olivaceous, 
the terminal half reddish brown, turning to pure brown at 
the extreme tip.” 
THE PLATE, as a faithful record of the plumage of the species, 
is excellent ; only the legs are wrongly coloured, and the lores of 
the right hand figure are too dark. This figure represents an 
adult male, that on the left an adult female. 
Schlegel and others have asserted that the plumage depicted 
in the latter is that of adults of both sexes. Jerdon pointed out 
that it was that of the adult female only. Then Colonel Tickell, 
in writing of this species in the /ze/d, remarked (the italics are 
mine) :— 
“The above descriptions disagree in many points with those 
given by Jerdon ; but they are carefully worded from observa- 
tion of several fine specimens of both sexes and different ages 
shot by myself in Tirhoot, Lower Bengal, and Singbhoom. 
The colouring ascribed by Ferdon to the adult male is that of an 
