72 THE WOODCOCK AND BRITISH SNIPE IN CEYLON. 



terminal spots on the outer webs; interscapulars, scapulars 

 and dorsal plumes black, with buff outer margins and 

 tips, and irregular cross lines of rich fulvous ; back brown 

 the feathers tipped greyish, with the upper tail coverts 

 changing into rufous yellow with black interrupted bars 5 

 quills and median wing coverts, hair brown, the latter 

 edged and tipped greyish ; primary wing coverts and secon- 

 daries tipped white, the latter very broadly so ; 1st primary 

 with a white outer web to within an inch of the tip ; tail 

 black, the terminal half-inch rich rufous with whitish tips 

 and narrow cross lines of black ; beneath, foreneck and 

 sides brown with fulvous edgings, and dark mesial lines 

 breast and belly white, flanks brown with light tips and 

 bars ; auxilliary plumes white with narrow, distant brown 

 bars ; under wing coverts white, barred lightly with brown, 



Major Meaden whose attention was forcibly drawn to 

 the existence of this snipe near Trincomalie by its peculiar 

 note, informed me that he had not noticed it prior to some 

 two or three seasons back, although he had been shooting 

 over the same ground for the past ten or eleven years. A 

 pair frequented the vicinity of the " Salt Lake," a small 

 snipe ground, some four miles north of the town, the year 

 before last, but were not seen there this season. 



As remarked by Layard (see ante, p. 66) I dont 

 comprehend why the common snipe, in the days of Kelaart 

 should have been u confined to the hills," and, as frequent 

 inquiries of late years, have failed to elicit any information 

 as to its occurrence in the Central Province, it is highly 

 probable that, as Kelaart most probably never handled 

 the bird in the flesh, he was mistaken in his identification 

 of the species, It no doubt occurs in the Jaffna peninsula 



