384 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
paratively few are left. This is but natural, for the country dries up 
rapidly after the cessation of the rains_, and the available amount of feeding- 
groand is consequently much reduced. I have shot a single specimen of 
this Snipe as late as the 1st of May. 
This Snipe differs in habits very markedly from the Common Snipe/ for 
although it is found in great abundance in paddy-fields, I think that perhaps 
more birds will be found on comparatively dry grass-land. Waste land 
slightly swampy and covered with tufts of coarse grass which have been 
eaten down rather short by cattle attracts vast numbers of this Snipe. The 
reason for this appears to be that the PintaiFs diet is not exclusively 
worms, but perhaps more usually insects, grubs, small shells and vegetable 
matter, in searching for which it is not obliged to insert its bill into the 
ground. During the hot weather the Pintail is found in grass-land which 
is not only dry but positively baked. Such is the case in the compound 
of the bungalow at Pagagalay, on the Pegu and Tonghoo road, where 
during March and April two or three birds can be invariably flushed out 
of the grass growing quite close to the house. 
The breeding-haunts of the Pintail are known to lie in Siberia, but no 
one has yet apparently taken the eggs. 
G. megala from China is allied to this species, diff'ering chiefly in having 
fewer stifi" lateral tail-feathers, and these are broader and more rufescent. 
729. GALLINAGO GALLINULA. 
THE JACK SNIPE. 
Scolopax gallinula, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 244. Gallinago gallinula, Jerd. B. 
Ind. ii. p. 676 ; Hume, S. F. iii. p. 182 ; Bl. B. Burm. p. 167 ; David et Oust. 
Ois. CJmie, p. 479 : Dresser, Birds Eur. vii. p. 653 ; Hume 8f Dav. S. F. vi. 
p. 459; Cripps, S. F. vii. p. 302; Hume, S. F. viii. p. 112; Scully, S. F. viii. 
p. 356 ; Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 828 ; Hu7ne 8f Marsh. Game Birds, iii. p. 373, 
pi. ; Hume, S. F. x. p. 239, note. 
Description. — Male and female. Crown and nape deep black, some of the 
feathers edged with rufous ; a broad butf band on each side the crown, 
extending from the upper mandible over the eye to the nape, with a narrow 
black line running down its middle ; a broad dark brown streak from the 
bill along the lores to the eye ; back and scapulars glossy greenish black 
with lilac and purple reflections, the scapulars with the outer webs chiefly 
bufl", forming two broad bands down the upper plumage ; tail dark brown 
edged with rufous ; wing-coverts black edged with whitish ; quills black, 
the secondaries whitish at the tips ; tertiaries mingled black and rufous ; 
chin and upper throat white ; lower throat, breast and sides of the neck 
