Scolopax stenura Bonaparte, ex Kuhl MS. Ann. Stor. Nat. Bologna
(1830), 4, 335.
Gallinago stenura Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1896), 24,
619; Hand-List (1899), 1, 165; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List
(1906), 29.
Calayan (McGregor); Mindanao (Murray); Palawan (White). Eastern
Siberia to the Yenesei; in winter China to Malay Peninsula.
"Adult male in breeding plumage.--Above blackish, striped and mottled
with sandy isabelline; streaks on the sides of back and scapulars very
broad; upper surface interspersed with rufous spots, but general color
of the light markings sandy buff, especially on hind neck; wing-coverts
dark brown, marginal series almost uniform, the rest barred with rufous
or sandy buff, with paler tips, the rufous and black bars very distinct
on the greater coverts, where they are regularly indicated; alula
and primary-coverts blackish, with narrow white tip; quills blackish,
the first primary browner on outer web, which is narrowly fringed with
white; secondaries (outermost of which do not exceed primary-coverts
in length) narrowly fringed with white at tip, inner ones barred with
rufous and blackish, mostly on outer web; innermost long secondaries
barred across, especially near the ends; tail-feathers blackish brown,
ten central ones with a broad band of pale chestnut, followed by
a subterminal bar of blackish brown, before a pale rufescent tip; a
second rufous band, considerably broken up, a little beyond the middle
of the feather; eight outer feathers on each side becoming narrower
and narrower, till the outermost has scarcely any web at all; these
wire-like feathers with white tips, with an indication of a blackish
subterminal bar; crown black, mottled with rufous spots and having a
mesial streak of sandy isabelline; a loral line of black, surmounted
by a supra-loral patch of sandy isabelline continued into a narrow
eyebrow; sides of face and ear-coverts isabelline, rufous just behind
eye, entire sides of face having more or less distinct small streaks of
blackish, and traversed by a broad blackish line across ear-coverts;
fore part of cheeks and chin sandy isabelline; throat and chest sandy
buff, slightly mottled with streaks and narrow horseshoe-shaped bars
of blackish; breast and abdomen white; sides of body slightly tinged
with sandy buff, and distinctly barred with black; under tail-coverts
pale sandy buff, with blackish centers, longer ones narrowly barred
with black near their ends; under wing-coverts and axillars distinctly
barred with black and white, white bars on the latter slightly wider
than the black bars; lower primary-coverts ashy; quills ashy below,
secondaries fringed with white at the ends. 'Basal half of upper bill
horny, distal half blackish brown; basal half of lower bill greenish,
remainder blackish brown; feet greenish; iris brown.' (Cripps.) Length,
223; culmen, 58; wing, 124; tail, 48; tarsus, 30.
"Adult female.--Does not perceptibly differ from the male in color
and markings. Length, 240; culmen, 62; wing, 129; tail, 44; tarsus, 30.
"It is very difficult to distinguish young birds from old ones, and
I believe that the only characters of any value are the uniform black
stripes along the sides of the crown. In old birds, not only are these
black stripes mottled with rufous, but there are also numerous small
spots of rufous-buff interspersed among the black feathers of the
back; the black subterminal marks on the scapulars are also smaller
in the young birds than in the old. A further sign of immaturity is,
I believe, to be seen in the nearly uniform fulvous-brown on the
throat and fore neck, these portions being more mottled with lines
and arrow-head spots of black in the old birds.
"From G. gallinago the present species is distinguished by the
wire-like feathers in the tail and by the entire surface of the
under wing-coverts being regularly barred with black and white, and
the outer web of the first primary being whity-brown instead of pure
white. Occasionally young birds of G. stenura have the whole of the
breast and abdomen regularly barred with dusky." (Sharpe.)