February 23.—Had a great thrill this morning when, in the Jessfield neighbourhood, I flushed a Painted Snipe: I could scarcely believe my eyes for the moment, but on returning home was fortunate in finding a record by the late F. W. Styan (dated 1891) that he had seen this bird in Shanghai in February. The strange thing is that although these birds are not regular migrants, there must be game reason why 2 specimen should turn up at the same time of year. Why February? What sportsman will not thrill at the thought of that beautiful bird with the exquisite plumage which has given it the apt, yet quite incorrect, name of "Painted Snipe"? How many people know that it is not 2 Snipe? It is, in fact, such an unusual creature—an offshoot from some ancient avian branch— that it must have a family all to itself. It i: correctly known as Rostratula benghalensis, and is really more of a Rail than a Snipe: it swims and dives like a Rail, and is one of those curio ous examples in the bird-world where the usual behaviour of the sexes is reversed....in other words, the female is larger, stronger and
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.