SCOLOPAX KUSTICULA. 
807 
The following are data of the only two Ceylonese examples that have been, so far as I am aware, preserved : — 
(a) Adult (sex?: Nuwara Eliya, Jan. 1872). Wing 8*0 inches ; tarsus 1-4 ; bill at front 3-15. (b) Female (Hakgala, 
Feb. 1877). Length 14 - 0 inches ; expanse 26'0 : weight 10 oz. 
Iris dark brown : bill slightly brownish at the base, from that fleshy, then darkening to blackish at the tip ; legs and 
feet greenish grey, brownish on the toes (British example in flesh). 
(«) Lores, chin, and forehead fulvous grey, tinged with brown ; top of head and occiput rich blackish sepia, barred 
with two narrow bands of rich fulvous tawny ; a darkish line down the forehead to base of bill, and a broad 
stripe through the lores from the gape to tho eye ; general aspect of plumage above dark sepia-brown and 
ferruginous, the wing-coverts and back being barred with rich rusty, and the scapidars, inters cap ulary region, 
lower hind neck, and tertials mottled marginally and indented with it ; the upper back and scapulars are also 
tipped and crossed with rich buff, mostly on the outer webs, the dark portions being sepia-black like the head ; 
lower back and rump barred narrowly with black and ferruginous alternately ; the upper tail-coverts more rufous 
than the rump, and the bars mottled and more wavy, some of the feathers tipped with grey ; lower wing-coverts 
blackish brown, barred with ferruginous, which predominates at the tips ; greater wing-coverts barred chiefly 
with buff ; quills and primary-coverts dark hair-brown, barred with ferruginous on all but the first two primaries, 
and indented with buff at the inner margins ; the first primary is edged with white, this colour indenting the 
brown near the shaft, the second is indented with buff ; tail black, with ferruginous indentations on the outer 
webs, and the tips, for nearly half an inch, brownish grey above and silvery white beneath. 
Beneath fulvous tawny ; chin whitish and the throat barred with brown, the lower part of the face striped with 
the same ; the chest and breast narrowly barred with brown, the bars on the flanks bolder than elsewhere ; 
under tail-coverts with central brown marks and cross bars ; axillaries brown, banded with fulvous buff ; under 
wing-coverts buff, barred narrowly with brown ; the greater series brown, barred with pale huffy. 
The above description of the Nuwara- Eliya specimen, now in the possession of Mr. Holdsworth, was taken before the 
skin was made up, when it was in a rough state, and is not as exhaustive as it might be ; yet I prefer to give 
precedence to it as being a Ceylon-killed bird. The Hakgala example I have not examined. 
Albinos are occasionally met with. Messrs. Blakiston and Pryer speak of a specimen all creamy white, obtained at 
Kawasaki in Japan, and now in the Milan Museum. 
Young (chick, Azores). Crown, hind neck, and centre of the back dark brown-maroon, deepening into black at the 
forehead, and with a stripe of the same through the lores, above which, and across the crown, are stripes of buff ; 
rest of the body above ferruginous, patched and otherwise marked with buff ; under surface rufous-buff, 
variegated at the sides of the throat with brownish rufous. The nestling at this age is very handsome. 
Bill black, yellowish at the base, measuring at front 0-6 inch. 
Nestling (about 5 weeks old : British Museum). Has much the same character of marking as an old bird. The crown 
is black, the feathers with rufous bases ; down the hind neck is a rufous band bounded on each side by a white 
one ; the back and wings are rufous, barred with black and patched with fulvous ; wings much as in the adult ; 
fore neck and under surface buff, with w’avy transverse bars of black, and with a wash of rufous on the sides of 
the chest. 
Yearling birds have the under surface devoid of the buff hue, the colour being dusky white; the under tail-coverts 
are the same instead of being rich buff, and are barred throughout from base to tips with brown, and not 
marked with handsome pointed stripes, as in the adult ; the outer web of the 1st primary has a white edge, but 
next the shaft it is brown, indented with the white of the margin. 
Ohs. There seems to be little variation, dependent on locality , in the plumage of the Woodcock throughout its widely 
extended habitat ; but examples from the Atlantic isles, where it is a resident species, are smaller than con- 
tinental birds. A Madeira skin, 3 , in the national collection measures — wing 7'5 inches, bill to gape 2-42, 
tarsus 1-3 ; another 3, from the Azores, measures— wing 6-9 inches, bill to gape 2'5, tarsus 1-2. 
Individual variations are noticeable in examples from the same locality or country, and are chiefly dependent on age. 
Some birds are very dark, notably Indian and Eastern- Asiatic specimens ; others are lightly and richly coloured. 
In some the cheeks are darkly striped, and in some there is a coalescing of bold dark markings across the throat 
forming an irregular band. The marking of the outer web of the first primary varies much, and was formerlv 
considered to be a sexual sign : the deeply indented white border is unquestionably a mark of nonage, and is 
most noticeable in birds with barred under tail-coverts ; but it exists in many manifestly adult birds while 
in other skins in the like plumage there is either a plain white border at the base or nearly all along the quill to 
