386 
BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 
Genus EHYNCH^EA, Cuv, 
730. RHYNCHiEA CAPENSIS. 
THE PAINTED SNIPE. 
' Scolopax capensis, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 24(3. Rallus benghalensis, Linn. Syst. 
Nat. i. p. 263. Rhynchaea bengalensis, Jerd. B. Lnd. ii. p. 677 ; Hume, 
Nests and LJyys, p. 586 ; Salvad. TJcc. Born. p. 335 ; Bl. B. Burm. p. 157 ; Butler, 
8. F. iv. p. 15, V. p. 223 ; David et Oust. Ois. Chine, p. 480 ; Wardlaw Ramsay., 
Ibis, 1877, p. 469 ; Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 683 ; Hume ^ Dav. S. F. vi. 
p. 459 ; Cripps, S. F. vii. p. 302 ; Hume, S. jP. viii. p. 112; Legge, Birds Ceylon, 
p. 800 ; Bingham, S. F. ix. p. 197 ; Hume Marsh. Game Birds, iii. p. 381, pi. ; 
Gates, S. F. x. p. 239. 
Description. — Male. A broad band along the centre of the head^ the 
feathers round and behind the eye buff; crown blackish^ the feathers 
narrowly margined with buffy white ; back of the neck ashy brown^ indi- 
stinctly barred with blackish ; back, scapulars and tertiaries olivaceous, 
banded with black and glossed with green, the outer webs of the scapulars 
broadly edged with buflF^ forming two stripes which are continued over the 
shoulders to the sides of the neck ; rump bluish ashy barred with blackish ; 
upper tail-coverts the same, but with large buff spots on both webs ; tail 
bluish ashy, narrowly barred with black and broadly with buff j upper 
wing-coverts pale buff, shaded with brown and barred with black ; quills 
bluish ashy with large oval buff spots, the primaries with black patches on 
the outer webs_, the secondaries black towards their bases ; chin whitish; 
throat,, breast and sides of the neck brown mottled with white^ the lower 
part of the breast with several indistinct blackish bars ; remainder of the 
lower plumage white. 
The female has a ring round the eye and a streak behind it white ; sides 
of the face, throat and the whole neck ferruginous ; the wing-coverts 
olive^ regularly but very narrowly banded with black ; the upper scapulars 
pointed and pure white ; the breast blackish_, bounded below by a broad 
white band extending up the sides of the shoulders ; the other parts much 
as in the male. 
Iris olive-brown ; bill and legs olive-brown ; claws horn-colour. 
Length 10 inches, tail 1*7, wing5'3, tarsus I'B, bill from gape 2. The 
female is rather larger. 
lower tail-coverts ruf escent with dusky marks, and the under wing-coverts barred black 
and whitish. 
" Bill reddish brown, paler at the base beneath; irides dusky brown; legs plumbeous 
green. Length 12^ to 13 inches, extent 18, wing 6f, tail 2^, bill at front 2f, tarsus If, 
middle toe 1 [f 
