THE WOODCOCK AND BRITISH SNIPE IN CEYLON. 71 



having, on being flushed, a very hoarse kind of " pipe," 

 reminding one of a bird with a cold I 



I was unable to premise from this diagnosis* what the 

 species might prove to be ; my friends however, promised 

 to keep a sharp look-out for the stranger, and accordingly 

 my curiosity was ere long rewarded by a specimen of the 

 British Snipe being brought to me on the 29th of December, 

 but which had been so devoured on the way home by ants 

 that it was useless. A week later I again received through 

 the kindness of the same gentleman, a second example, the 

 sex of which, however, I am unable to record, as it was 

 shot and skinned for me while I was absent on a shooting 

 trip. Nevertheless I propose to describe it in the pages 

 of the journal of this Society, as being the first of its 

 species identified in the island, and as affording a means of 

 comparing it with, and distinguishing it from, the allied 

 Malayan form so common with us every year. 



Dimensions. Wing 5'2 inches ; tail 2'25 ; tarsus 1*2 • 

 mid toe 1*1 ; its claw 0'2 5 outer toe and claw 1 ; bill to; 

 forehead 2*7. ■ 



Soft Parts, Iris brown ; legs and feet greyish green ; 

 bill reddish brown, paler beneath. 



Description. Centre of forehead, crown and occiput dark 

 sepia brown, edged rufous on the latter part ; chin, throat 

 and cheeks, with a stripe over the eye from base of bill 

 and another mesial line on the head, buff grey with a 

 dividing stripe from nostril to eye ; back of neck and 

 upper part of its sides dark brown, with buff and grey 



* My informants referred, as I afterwards ascertained, to the white 

 tips of the secondaries,, when speaking of a white wing bar, 



