302 THE PAINTED SNIPE. 
Some years ago Captain E. A. Butler raised the question 
as to whether the plumage depicted in the left hand figure 
was not merely seasonal, assumed only when the birds were 
breeding, and whether, at other times, even adult females did not 
wear the same livery as the males. 
At the time, not having then specially investigated the plum- 
age of this species, I was inclined to agree with him in this 
suggestion, which was apparently supported by the specimens 
(then far from numerous) in our museum. 
Now, however, I entirely disbelieve this : First, because I have 
obtained, and have now before me, specimens in full female 
plumage, shot in January, February, March, May, July, Septem- 
ber, November and December ; and I have no doubt myself that 
a little further attention to the subject will yield birds in this 
plumage in April, June, August, and October also. Secondly 
(and this is the most important point, seing that. it has already 
been explained that in one place or another the birds lay 
almost throughout the year), because every one of the appa- 
rently full-grown females examined by me in male, or nearly 
male plumage, exhibited undeveloped virgin ovaries. I failed 
to find a single female, in this plumage, with an ovary showing 
that she had ever bred, though I found one in intermediate 
plumage in which the eggs were just beginning to swell. Even 
this bird would, 1 believe, have completed the change of 
plumage before any of those eggs came to be laid. 
I must now again return to the plate ; and, admirably as this 
depicts the plumage of the specimens figured, itis necessary to 
explain that, in this species too, the plumage varies considerably. 
To take the females first. Many birds have the chestnut of 
the neck lighter coloured and entirely want the blackish shading 
on the sides of the neck. In some the yellow line caused by the 
buffy outer margins to the scapulars is very conspicuous ; in 
others these margins are absolutely wanting. In some birds 
the peculiar elongated, linear-lanceolate pure white feathers that 
have their origin amongst the bases of the tertiary coverts are 
much more plainly visible than in the plate, while in many 
specimens they are much less developed, and are only dis- 
covered on raising the feathers. In some birds, those I think 
in fullest plumage, the back has a regular reddish violet glow, as 
depicted, but more commonly this part is green, like the coverts. 
The narrow transverse barrings on the whole of the visible 
portion of the closed wing are often further apart and more 
distinctly marked than in the plate, and the tail shows more 
distinct buff patches on the grey ground than in the specimen 
figured. 
In the male the lores are never so dark as represented. The 
whole front of the neck is often streaked and spotted with 
white, and the wing has the buff markings arranged more in 
lines and not so much like a series of arrow heads as in the 
