PAINTED SNIPE. 
497 
The best known representative of the genus is the common painted snipe 
(j Rhynchoea capensis )—so familiar to all snipe-shooters in Bengal—which is dis¬ 
tributed all over Africa south of the Sahara, Madagascar, Arabia, India, Ceylon, 
Burma, and the Malayan region, and thence to the Philippines, China, Southern 
Japan, etc. This is one of the two largest species, and is specially characterised 
by the large number of buff eye-like spots on the primary quills of the wings. 
The adult female is somewhat the larger and more brightly coloured bird, and 
may always be recognised by the olive-green wing-coverts, in which each feather 
is crossed by nearly a dozen narrow dark bars. In the adult female the neck is 
deep chestnut, shading into black on the breast; and the outermost of the inner 
secondaries are white, forming a conspicuous stripe. The adult male, on the other 
hand, has only two dark bars on each feather of the wing-coverts, with a buff 
patch between them. In both sexes the quills of the wings are olivaceous grey, 
with narrow dark bars, and a series of five or more buff eye-like spots on the outer 
webs, and the inner webs with similar spots alternating with white bars. The 
olive-grey tail has four or five rows of these same buff spots on both webs of the 
feathers, all of which are tipped with buff. The plumage of the upper-parts is 
more or less olivaceous, with the feathers marked by fine zigzag lines ; while the chin 
and lower breast are white, the white area of the latter passing on to the shoulder 
to form a stripe on the scapular region. In addition to the pale stripe down the 
middle of the head, there is likewise a light area round each eye. The Australian 
species ( R. australis) may be distinguished by having two instead of four buff 
spots on the outer web of the eighth primary quill; while the female is peculiar 
in possessing a much convoluted windpipe. The South American painted 
snipe (R. semicollar is), wandering in summer as far south as Patagonia and 
wintering in Peru and Brazil, is a much smaller bird than either of the others, 
with conspicuous large round white spots on the black wing-coverts. Differing 
from the true snipe in their shorter beaks, and low, flapping flight, the painted 
snipe haunt the same marshy districts as the latter; and although they 
afford but poor sport, the beauty of one of these birds as it falls on the ground 
with outstretched wings and tail displaying the spots is quite unrivalled. 
Although resident throughout the year in India, the common species has to 
change its quarters a good deal in the drier districts of that country, and is 
only a migrant to the north-west. When breeding, they are always found in pairs; 
and, so far as the writer’s experience goes, this is generally the case in Lower 
Bengal all through the colder months, but at certain times of the year Mr. Hume 
says that they are more frequently met with in small parties. The number of 
eggs seems to be four; and both parent birds are always in the neighbouiliood 
of the nest. The young birds, when first hatched, have the beak quite short. 
Woodcock and The extreme length of the slender beak, which is more than 
snipe. twice that of the metatarsus, serves at once to distinguish these 
birds from their relatives, with whom alone they agree in having the toes 
completely free from webs. The long and straight beak is swollen at the 
sides, and soft and rugose at the tip, with the laterally-placed and basal 
nostrils covered with a membrane. The long wings are generally pointed, while 
the rounded tail comprises a variable number of feathers. Although in all the 
vol. iv .—32 
