The little jack snipe (G. gallinula) is much later in its arrival, though numerous species of small waders arrive front their breeding-haunts before the end of Augu,t. He, again, has a tail quite different from that of any of the others. In brilliancy of plumage he excels all the rest.
There is a small and distinct species of wood cock in the Malay Archipelago (the Scolopax saturata of Horstield). The woodcock, identical with the British, has been obtained in the Tenas serlin Provinces; it abounds in the Himalaya, is less counnon in the Neilgherries, and is considered a rare bird in the mountains of Ceylon. On the Bombay side it is said to be far from common in the Mahabaleshwar.
The painted species, the Rhyne Bengalensis, belongs to a different genus from the true snipes, far more diverse than the closely akin one of the woodcocks. Sportsmen acknowledge this when they refuse to allow it to count in the g,tune-bag. I t is not a migratory bird, and both eggs and young have been obtained in the vicinity of Cal cutta. Indeed, Mr. Blyth luts taken the egg from the oviduct of a bird brought -to the bazar. Its frght is not in the least like that of -a real snipe, and has been aptly compared to that of a huge moth fluttering over the ground. One remark able peculiarity of the painted snipe consists in the dissimilarity of the sexes, the female being the larger and more finely-coloured bird of the two ; while the young in their first plumage resemble the mature male. The same has been observed
of the Australian painted snipe (R. australis), which externally differs little from the Indian except in having shorter toes. Nevertheless, the female only of the Australian painted snipe has an extraordinary prolongation of the trachea or windpipe, as described by Gould, which is not the case with that sex of the Indian species. So curious a difference of structure existing in two species which externally are so much alike as the painted snipes of India and Australia, is a most remark able fact.
The woodcock is found on the Neilgherries, mid occasionally on the plains of the Peninsula. Otte was shot at Kaladgi in 1842. It i8 every-where very scarce on the plains of India, but has now and then been met with even near Calcutta. The so-called woOdcocks seen at the dinner-table are generally greenshanks (To tanus glottis), and occa sionally the black-tailed godwit (Limosa regoceph ala),—birds of very different Scolopaceous genera.
The Macrorliamphus genus combines the form and exact bill of the snipes, with the plumage and seasonal changes of colouring of the godwits, knot, etc., becoming rufous in the breeding serts.on. Mr. Blyth once obtained this bird in the Calcutta provision bazar. A second example was obtained in the Madras Presidency ; and it is a bird that should be looked for on the sea-coast. Shore snipe should indeed be its popular name.