Scolopax rusticola, Lin.
867. :- Jerdon's Birds of India, Vol. II, p. 670 ; Butler, Deccan ; Stray Feathers, Vol. IX, p. 428 ; Murray's Vertebrate Zoology of Sind, p. 238; Game Birds of India, Vol. III, p. 309.
THE WOODCOCK.
Length, 13.0 to 15.0 ; expanse, 23.0 to 25.5 ; wing, 7.2 to 8.0; tail, 3.0 to 3.85 ; tarsus, 1.35 to 1.57; bill from gape, 2.8 to 3.3; weight, 7 to 12 1/2 oz.
Bill fleshy-grey, dusky at tip ; irides dark-brown; legs fleshy-plumbeous.
Forehead and crown ashy-grey, tinged rufous; a dusky streak from gape to eyes; occiput, with four broad transverse bars of blackish-brown; the rest of the upper part variegated with ches¬ nut brown, ochre-yellow and ash-grey, with zigzag lines and irregular spots of black; throat white ; rest of the underparts yellowish white, passing into rufous on the breast and forepart of neck with cross wavy bars of dusky-brown ; quills barred ferruginous and black ; tail black; the outer webs edged rufous ; tips ash-grey above, silvery-white beneath.
The Woodcock only occurs within our limits as a rare cold weather visitant.
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