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.