Part 56

"Extremely abundant in rice-fields at certain seasons." (Bourns and Worcester MS.)

123. GALLINAGO GALLINAGO (Linnæus).

FANTAIL SNIPE.

Scolopax gallinago Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 147. Gallinago gallinago Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1896), 24, 633; Hand-List (1899), 1, 165; Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 61; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 29. Gallinago coelestis Oates, Bds. Brit. Burmah (1883), 2, 381.

Can-du-ro', Manila and Mindoro.

Bohol (Everett); Leyte (Everett); Luzon (Meyer, Everett, Whitehead, McGregor); Mindanao (Mearns); Mindoro (McGregor). Europe to northern Asia; in winter Senegambia and northeastern Africa, Indian Peninsula to Malay Peninsula and the Moluccas.

"Male and female.--Crown black with a fulvous streak over median line; a blackish streak from bill to eye, above and below which the feathers are pale fulvous; chin whitish; throat and sides of head and neck fulvous, streaked with black; breast and sides of body fulvous, barred with black; abdomen and vent white; under tail-coverts fulvous, streaked with brown; under wing-coverts barred indistinctly with black and white; tail black, the end rufous mottled with black; upper plumage black, edged and streaked with rich fulvous and chestnut; wing-coverts black, barred with fulvous; quills dark brown, narrowly edged with whitish. Bill fleshy brownish, green for two-thirds of its length from base, remainder horny brown; iris very dark brown; legs and feet brownish green. Length, 267; tail, 61; wing, 127; tarsus, 30; bill from gape, 58." (Oates.)

"Adult female.--Similar to the male. Length, 267; culmen, 71; wing, 135; tail, 62; tarsus, 33.

"Young.--Differs from the adult in being more rufous, especially on the throat and neck. The black markings of the back are more broken up and mottled with rufous bars, and the pale outer bands along the scapulars are not so wide. Seebohm states that young snipes may be recognized by not having a dark shaft-line on the light tips of the upper wing-coverts, but I have found indications of the latter in quite young birds.

"Nestling.--Covered with down of a chestnut color, interspersed with black along the back, and prettily variegated with silvery tips to the feathers; below the eye a whitish streak, bordered with lines of black; under surface of body bright chestnut, with a black spot on the throat and a black line across the fore neck." (Sharpe.)

"This species and G. stenura are likely to be confounded unless special attention is paid to the differences between them. The first and most unfailing point of difference is in the tail. In G. gallinago the tail is composed of twelve, fourteen, or sixteen ordinary soft feathers; in G. stenura there are ten soft feathers and on either side of these a number, varying from five to nine, of narrow rigid feathers with apparently no webs. These narrow feathers require to be looked for; they do not strike the eye, as they are more or less hidden by the tail-coverts and are moreover very close together. A second point of difference lies in the coloration of the lower surface of the wing. In the pintail snipe the axillars and the under wing-coverts are very distinctly and regularly barred with dark brown throughout. In the common snipe these same parts are indistinctly barred, and there is always a patch on the coverts left quite white and unbarred. Mr. Hume points out one or two additional differences which it may be well to quote: In the common snipe the outer web of the first primary is white or nearly so, and the secondaries are broadly tipped with white; in the pintail the outer web of the first primary is of the same color as the inner, and the secondaries are only margined with albescent or brownish white." (Oates.)

Genus ROSTRATULA Vieillot, 1816.

Bill long and slender but shorter than in Gallinago, its tip slightly swollen and bent downward with a median ridge and two lateral grooves, not pitted; culmen little longer than tarsus; female brighter in plumage than male.

124. ROSTRATULA CAPENSIS (Linnæus).

PAINTED SNIPE.

Scolopax capensis Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 12 (1766), 1, 246. Rostratula capensis Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1896), 24, 683; Hand-List (1899), 1, 167; Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1898), 4, 293, fig. 67; Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902), 2, 68; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 29.

Pa-co'-bo, Manila.

Catanduanes (Whitehead); Leyte (Everett); Lubang (McGregor); Luzon (Everett, Bourns & Worcester, McGregor); Marinduque (Steere Exp.); Mindanao (Murray, Everett, Steere Exp., Bourns & Worcester); Panay (Bourns & Worcester); Samar (Steere Exp., Whitehead); Sibuyan (McGregor); Siquijor (Bourns & Worcester). Africa, Indian Peninsula, Greater Sunda Islands; Burmese provinces to China and Japan south to Malay Peninsula.

"Adult female.--Above ashy brown, strongly glossed with olive-green, freckled all over with transverse lines of dusky blackish, with here and there broader bars of greenish black; some of the scapular feathers edged with bright ocherous forming a streak down each side of the back; long inner coverts pure white, forming another streak, generally concealed by the scapulars; wing-coverts distinctly glossed with olive-green and finely barred with dusky; alula, primary-coverts, and quills pearly gray, freckled with irregular wavy lines of black, and ocellated ovate spots of rich ocherous on outer web, and with bars of the same color on inner web; all the quills marked with black at base of outer web, more distinctly seen in the primaries than the secondaries; lower back, rump, upper tail-coverts, and tail pearly gray, with black cross-lines, rump with a few white spots, upper tail-coverts spotted with rich ocherous, tail-feathers barred with ocherous; crown dusky, slightly glossed with olive-green, a band of ocherous down the center, bordered on each side by a shade of black; round eye a cincture of isabelline whitish, reaching to a point above ear-coverts, and surrounded by a blackish shade above and below, more broadly in front; lores, sides of face, and throat, deep chestnut, extending backwards round hind neck; across fore neck a broad collar of greenish black; remainder of under surface white, extending upwards on either side of the black præ-pectoral band; on each side of upper part of breast a black patch with a slight greenish gloss, succeeded by some brown feathers waved with dusky lines; axillars and under wing-coverts white, outer ones ashy, freckled with dusky cross-lines and small spots of white or buff. 'Bill greenish, yellowish fleshy at the tip of both mandibles; feet pale green; iris dark brown.' (Butler.) Length, 229; culmen, 47; wing, 140; tail, 42; tarsus, 43.

"Adult male.--Different from the female and rather smaller. Easily distinguished from the female by the absence of chestnut on the throat and neck, and by the different color of the wing-coverts. The latter, instead of being olive-green barred with blackish cross-lines, are bronzy olive, with numerous bar-like spots of yellow-ocher, these spots having a black line above and below; the inner secondaries similarly colored and marked. Although there is a line of sandy buff on each side of the back, there are apparently no white parapteral plumes. Instead of the chestnut on the throat, the latter is white with dusky spots on the upper part, the lower throat light brown, mottled with dusky bars and whitish margins to the feathers, the lower border of this dusky patch edged with a band of black. 'Bill purplish brown; feet dull slaty blue; iris dark brown.' (S. Stafford Allen.) Length, 229; culmen, 49; wing, 127; tail, 41; tarsus, 43.

"Young male.--Resembles the old male almost exactly, but has the throat entirely white, the lower throat and fore neck washed with brown, with some dusky streaks; these streaks on the full-grown male are sometimes black, but the feathers of the back and scapulars have spots or margins of white.

"Young female.--Is at first like the young male and has the same yellow-spotted wing-coverts; the hind neck is gray, vermiculated with dusky like the male, and the markings on the throat are similar to those of the latter sex. When the chestnut color is first assumed, it is of a dull tint, and is obscured by dusky margins to the feathers; the chin is white, and the throat and fore neck uniform brown, with which the chestnut feathers are often mingled." (Sharpe.)

"Fairly abundant about the rice-fields. Easy to bring down on account of its comparatively slow and heavy flight. Resident in the Philippines. We obtained its nest and eggs in Siquijor." (Bourns and Worcester MS.)

Subfamily PHALAROPODINÆ.

Small sandpipers with the toes lobed, and posterior side of tarsus serrated.

Genus LOBIPES Cuvier, 1817.

Bill slender, nearly cylindrical, not widened toward tip; nostrils separated from loral feathers by a space equal to much less than the depth of upper mandible at base.

125. LOBIPES LOBATUS (Linnæus).