they were raised as high as eight or ten inches from ground,
and supported by the grass in which they were built.
" Of the various situations they were found in, I may mention
as one of the most common the raised footpaths which
so often intersect these rice fields. In the rains the sides of
the paths become overgrown with grass, and in this grass the
nest is often built. Another favourite place is the short, dark
green rushy grass that grows by the sides of tanks, and in
swampy ground. This, perhaps, is the most favourite place
of all, and in many of the nests, found in this situation, the
blades of grass were drawn together over the top of the nest
so as to form a sort of canopy as in some nests of Porzana
akool. Another favourite spot is a rice field that has been
ploughed up and left unplanted for some time until the
grass begins to grow over it.
" One nest I discovered was placed under a low bush (about
one foot high) growing in short grass in swampy ground by the
side of a tank. Another nest I found by the side of a public road
on the borders of a rice field. A small pool of water, about
twelve feet square, had become almost dry, and some short,
dark-green, rushy grass had sprung up. In this grass a pair of
Painted Snipe built their nest.
" The nest consists generally of a more or less substantial pad
of sedge or wet grass, in a hollow in the ground, sometimes altogether
exposed, sometimes under cover of a tussock of grass, or
with blades of grass growing over it.
" The old birds are almost always near the nest, and usually
lie close, rising heavily when flushed, and settling again after
a short flight. I got so accustomed to their mode of rising
at last, that I could almost always say, when the birds got
up, whether there was a nest or not. They usually run a
yard or two from the nest before rising, but on more than one
occasion I have seen a bird slip quietly off the nest, and squat
by the side of it until flushed.
" The eggs are always, as far as my experience goes, four
in number.
" The following is the detail of the nests taken by me
this season :—
24th August 1876, a nest containing 4 fresh eggs.
26th „ „ do. 4 do.
1, *• » do. 4 about to hatch.
12th September „ do. 4 fresh eggs.
17th „ „ do. 4 do.
22nd „ ,, do. do.
23rd » „ do. 4 do.
23rd „ „ do. 4 do.
27th „ „ do. 4 do,
" Iii addition to these nests I found young broods, just
hatched, on the 26th August, and again on the 26th September.
The chicks are buff, striped with dark brown, much in colour
like young Pheasants. The bill is also quite short at that
age."
I have already mentioned that there is every probability
that the female only calls ; the female, as will be seen further
on, is larger and handsomer than the male ; the young of both
sexes wear the plumage, not of the female, but of the adult
male ; and in yet one other point does the case of the Painted
Snipe resemble that of the Bustard Quails, for in no less than
three cases in which old birds have, to my knowledge, been
captured on the eggs, such old birds have proved to be males.
I do not know that the female never sits ; that is a point
for future careful investigation. All I know is, that in the only
cases in which I have been able to test it, it has been the
males who were incubating.
The eggs of this species, almost invariably, I believe, four in
number, are of the same type, so far as shape is concerned, as
those of the Common Snipe ; but they are, as a rule, not quite so
pinched out towards the small end as those of that species.
Compared with those of the true Snipe they are very small ;
the Painted Snipe weighs from two to fully three times what the
Jack Snipe does ; but the cubic contents of the eggs of the
former are less than four-fifths of those of the latter.
In colour and markings the egg has a somewhat Ploverlike
appearance, but is more glossy.
The shell, very hard and of a very close and compact texture,
has generally a very appreciable, and occasionally a great deal
of gloss. The ground colour is typically a yellowish stone or
cafe an lait colour, but in some has a strong olive tinge, and in
some again is a very pale, clear, greenish creamy, or even pale
greenish drab. The markings consist, as a rule, of a few very large
and very irregular-shaped blotches, intermingled with numbers
of smaller blotches and irregular streaks, spots and occasionally
lines, but sometimes all the markings on the egg are comparatively
small. Some show a very conspicuous broad confluent zone
round one end ; but the markings are extremely variable in
size, shape and arrangement, and all one can say is, that they
generally between them cover nearly half the surface of the
egg. The markings are intense blackish brown, appearing quite
black in some spots, where the colour is most intense, but paling
off into sepia in some few sub-surface-looking spots and clouds.
In some eggs there are none of these secondary markings, and
in none are they very numerous or conspicuous. Occasionally
some of the markings verge upon a raw sienna brown. In
length the eggs vary from 1*29 to I'49> a n d in breadth from
o 89 to I'05, but the average of 40 eggs is 139 by 099.
IN THIS species the females are very decidedly larger than
the males, birds of the same age of course being compared,