804 
RHYNOLEA CAPENSIS. 
The Painted Snipe feeds much on very small Mollusca. I once found a number of good-sized univalve 
shells in the stomach of an individual which I shot in a salt marsh ; and on other occasions I have detected 
minute snails in its gizzard. Like the true Snipes, T imagine that it searches for its food to a great extent 
at night, lying quiet in the daytime. Mr. Ball remarks that lie has frequently flushed them from under the 
" shelter of Tamarix bushes in the beds of rivers.” In Formosa and China Swinhoe seems to have observed this 
bird chiefly in marshy places ; and we learn but little from his notes concerning its economy, except that he 
found its food to consist of Crustacea. 
That exceedingly observant naturalist, Yon Heuglin, however, appears to have closely investigated its 
habits while he was in Northern Africa ; and the result of his observations tends to show its affinities with the 
last family of birds. He remarks that in Lower Egypt, though it is common, it is not often seen, on account 
of its nocturnal habits and propensity for concealing itself ; it there affects the thickest sedge, long grass, rice- 
fields, the borders of lagoons, small ponds, brooks, mid the edges of muddy overgrown dykes. Like the Rails, 
to which he observes it bears a resemblance in its actions, it is with difficulty flushed during the heat of the 
day, and can be more easily found on moonlight nights, or with the help of a pointer, when it will allow 
itself to be taken by hand. If surprised in an open spot, it escapes into the nearest thicket, and there remains 
motionless. Its flight is likened to that of the Land-Rail as being more laboured and fluttering, and suddenly 
terminated after from 10 to 20 paces by the bird dropping into the grass, giving one the impression that it 
had suddenly lost the power of flight. 
It is, in general, entirely silent. I have never once heard it give vent to a note on being flushed j Brehm, 
however, likens its voice in the spring to a rather loud dissyllabic cry resembling naeLi, naeki. 
I find the following note, contributed some years ago to f Nests and Eggs ' (/. c.), on a nestling which I 
had in my possession at Galle, and which was very quaint m its actions : £ It lived but two days, and was 
confined in my back yard, where it used to run about, hiding behind tubs, chatties, and such articles ; when 
tired, it used to rest its head by placing the point of its bill on the ground, after the manner of the Apteryx ; 
when pursued it would spread out its wings and squat on the ground, and then run a little distance, crouching 
down again.” Blyth remarks that the young “ with feathers half-grown spread the wings and tail, displaying 
their beautiful markings, and try to look fierce at the beholder.” He lias likewise noticed that when surprised 
the adult “ has the habit of spreading out its wings and tail, and so forming a sort of radiated disk, which 
shows off its spotted markings, menacing the while with a hissing sound and contracted neck, and then 
suddenly darting off.” 
Nidification .— The Painted Snipe cither has two broods in the year, or else it breeds indiscriminately at 
all seasons. It may be said, however, as a rule, that more nests are found, young captured, and eggs taken 
from dead birds between November and May than at the opposite season of the year. I have seen an egg 
taken from a specimen at Galle in March, young captured at Wackwella in September, and know that nestlings 
have been seen in May at Oodogamma. In the Colombo district eggs have been procured in April, and young 
found by Mr. MacVicar in February. Mr. Iloldsworth mentions the fact of a wounded bird laying an egg 
in a basket in which it was confined on the 31st December ; but at this time of the year I have killed birds in 
the north of Ceylon which showed no signs of breeding. 
Layard states that the season of nidification is from May till J uly ; but this observation is perhaps based 
upon a single occurrence. I myself shot a female which had evidently risen from the nest, in July, in the 
Hambantota district ; but I do not think, as I have just remarked, that as many birds lay then as during 
the cooler months. The nest is placed upon the bund of a paddy-field or in swamp-grass and rushes, and is 
made of grass and rush -blades. Layard says it consists of a slight depression in the soil, lined with a few tufts 
of grass. I have never seen one myself ; but as regards its shape and size I find that Mr. Hume describes 
one which Mr. A. J. Rainey sent him from Khalispoor, in Jessore, as a large circular pad of mingled coarse 
and fine rice-straw, some 6 inches diameter and about l - 75 in thickness, and with a central depression of 
about | inch in depth. The number of eggs laid in Ceylon seems usually to be four. They are of a beautiful 
stone-yellow ground, very boldly marked with widely-separated blotches or clouds of brownish black or very 
deep sepia, beneath which lie bluish-grey and light-brown blots in some eggs, while others are streaked with 
black lines among the clouds. Some eggs are chiefly marked at the large end, while others have the blotches 
