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Pseudoscolopax semipalmatus, Jerd.

Vernacular Names .-[None,]

THE Snipe-billed Godwit has been so seldom observed within our limits that it may be well to mention every instance of its occurrence that has come to my notice.

About the close of 1844 Jerdon procured the type in the Madras market. On December the 12th, 1847, Blyth procured one in the Calcutta market. Colonel McMaster writes: " I have killed it in January, (? 1863) near Rangoon, feeding close to the Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus) and the Stilt {Hima?itopus candidus.)

On the 28th September (? 1876) Mr. Oates obtained two specimens, a male and a female, near the mouth of the Sitang in Lower Pegu, and on the 13th of December 1878 I purchased three specimens in the flesh (one male and two females) in the Calcutta market, which had been captured in a bird-net thirteen miles south-east of Calcutta.

Besides these instances, Colonel Graham writes that he has shot " a few" in Eastern Assam ; but I am by no means sure that my kind friend has correctly identified the species. No one else at any rate has ever met with this species in Assam, but it would be extremely likely to occur there on passage.

Outside our limits it has been procured at Pontianak in Borneo (two specimens by Diard), and it has occurred in China, but is probably rare there. I do not gather that Pere David himself ever met with it, but Swinhoe says he procured two specimens—one in partially moulted plumage, in autumn at Hankow, Central China, the other in full summer plumage from the neighbourhood of Tientsin.

Verreaux received a specimen from Dauria, and not recognizing it in its rufous summer garb, renamed it Micropalma taczanowskis For years Dybowski failed to meet with it in Darasun, and the neighbourhood of Lake Baikal; but he notified the existence of one specimen in the Irkutsk Museum, obtained somewhere in the neighbourhood, and of another at Warsaw which had been procured near Chita the capital (?) of Trans-Baikalia. Later however he found it on the Argun River (which divides Trans-Baikalia from that part of Northern Mongolia, called Kheluntsyan on English Maps) in about 50° North Latitude. It was very plentiful there in the spring, and remained until the females were nearly ready to lay, but did not nest there, probably proceeding further north fox-that purpose. Prjevalski never appears to have seen this species in all his wanderings in Mongolia, the Valley of the Hoangho, Kansu, &c. Nor did Schrenk, Middendorff, or Radde meet with it apparently anywhere in Northern or Eastern, or South- Eastern Siberia. Indeed the representative American form, the so-called Red-breasted Snipe ( Macrorhamphus griseus) has been obtained in the extreme east of Siberia. Clearly we have yet to discover both the summer and winter head-quarters of this curious species.

Absolutely nothing is known of the haunts, habits, flight, voice, or food of this species; but we may surmise that, during the non-breeding season, it is chiefly to be found on or in the neighbourhood of sea coasts, as is the case with the Red-breasted Snipe of America. From its bill conspicuously spatulate, and covered for the terminal inch with nerve pits and channels, indicating a bill more sensitive even than that of the Common Snipe, we may infer that it frequents soft mud flats and oozy ground. Its comparatively long arid very pointed wings, together with the ample development of the pectoral muscles, indicate a rapid and powerful flight; while as to its food the sensitive character of the bill shows that this is almost exclusively sought for beneath the surface, and will probably consist of worms, small sand-eels and soft-bodied crustacea.

In shooting birds like the present species, Godwits, Curlew, Whimbrel and many others, along the mud flats that fringe our coasts, and almost fill many of our harbours, sportsmen should never forget the extremely treacherous character of these banks, and the dangers that attend incautious attempts to retrieve wounded birds. I have several times myself, when walking on what appeared to be sound ground, with only about a foot of mud over it, suddenly sunk another foot or more, and once I went in right to my waist, and so remained helpless until dragged out, (leaving my boots behind) by the united efforts of two boats' crews. But I might just as well have lit upon some deeper mud hole, where I should probably have sunk before aid could have reached me.

Tickell tells how a boatman of his was all but lost on one of the mud banks in the Roopnarain, near the junction of that river with the Hooghly, and 'in my coast shootings I have had many stories told me of men who have thus perished. Tickell had dropped a bird on one of these banks. "The tide had turned to rise. I was much averse to the man getting out of the boat to fetch the bird, but the others seemed to think the mud just there was safe, and it certainly was, so far that the man did not sink higher than his knees, and would have reached the bird safely; but it fluttered a few yards further on his approach, and thus led him plunging and labouring on, till in a moment, to my horror, he sank up to his waist. He had come suddenly on a spring or percolation of water, which rendered the mud perfectly quick or semi-fluid. His ghastly look, as he writhed round towards us, in a vain attempt to reach the boat, I shall never forget to the last day of my life. The men with me were fishermen of those parts, and pretty well accustomed to accidents of the kind ; but even they seemed to think this a bad case. They shouted to the sinking man to keep perfectly still, and with strenuous efforts we managed to pole and push the dingey to within three yards of him. They then threw the large steering oar and a spare bamboo sideways over and beyond the man, and on these rested another bamboo, the near end of which was over the dingey's gunnel. On this bamboo the man rested by his arms and chest, and ceased to sink deeper. As the tide rose we drifted near enough to touch him; but all our efforts were unequal to extricate him from the mud, and as the water began to mount to his shoulders I was in unspeakable dread of what would follow in five minutes more if we could not get help. Happily, the young flood was bringing up, as usual, a perfect fleet of boats, hastening to the various market towns up the Roopnarain ; and after much shouting and offers of 'bucksheesh' two boats were induced to come to our assistance, and by crowding their beaks or prows together with ours, four or five men were able to grasp the unfortunate fellow and regularly " man-handle" him out, quitte pour le penr. But what penr ! Of all the ghastly deaths that imagination can conjure up, sure none can be so horrible as smothering, by inches, in the mud! It made me think then, and often years afterwards, what an exquisite luxury, did we but appreciate it, is that of simply breathing !"

This treacherous character of mud banks is a very real and ever present danger, and the not -unheard-of practice amongst some European sportsmen, of compelling their boatmen, vi et armis, to retrieve wounded birds off mud-banks, cannot be too strongly deprecated. In one instance, to my knowledge,, it resulted in the loss of two lives.

In no case, no matter how thin the mud appears in the place first tried, should any man be allowed to plunge into one of these banks without a good long thick bamboo in his hands.

Not only on the coast, but in many of the larger rivers hundreds of miles from the sea, most dangerous dul-duls or quick sands occur; indeed are in the Ganges most common.

Only the other day, old and practised hand as I am at this work, I suddenly sank in above my waist, when hunting for Tern's eggs, in the Ganges a few miles below Allahabad.

The young sportsman should never, therefore, forget that mud-flats, whether by the sea or inland, are places to be only ventured on with great care.

In Mr. Oates' birds "the bill was black, turning to plumbeous at the gape ; iris dark brown ; claws black; legs and toes dark plumbeous."

Blyth says : " Bill dusky, dull carneous towards the base of the lower mandible; legs and toes lead coloured."

The Plate would be an exact representation of the winter plumage, if the brownish fulvous shade which overlies the head, neck, back, breast, and sides were replaced by grey. This is not the fault of the artist The only specimen available, when our plate was prepared, nearly three years ago, was Mr. Blyth's old specimen which did exhibit this fulvous shade, which latter, as we now know by comparison with fresh birds, was only what is technically called " museum brown," due to long exposure in Calcutta to damp, heat, dust and light; the bill should be blackish dusky or deep brown, except just towards the base; the legs and feet should be lead coloured instead of green as in the plate.

The breeding plumage is widely different, and, like that of the true Godwits, very rufous. I have never myself seen this species in summer plumage, but this latter is thus described by David and Oustalet:—

" The upper parts bright rufous with brown streaks on the middle of the crown, on the lores, and down the back of the neck, and large spots of the same colour on the dorsal feathers ; the lower parts of a more uniform rufous ; the feathers of the abdomen margined a little with white, and the flanks and lower tail-coverts marked with a few irregular brown streaks ; wing-coverts, secondaries and tertiaries a greyish brown, margined with white; primaries brown, with white shafts ; the tail feathers transversely rayed with white upon a brown ground."

Probably this plumage is entirely lost by the end of October, but Mr. Oates says of one of his specimens shot on the 29th of September:—

" The male is still partially in summer plumage ; the breast is ferruginous, and the tertials are edged with the same."

Doubtless the great mass of the specimens met with in India will be in winter plumage, and the bird is so rare, and it is so desirable that it should be certainly identified wherever met with, that I subjoin a more detailed account of this plumage, recorded by myself from fresh specimens :—

The wings, when closed, reach 0.2 beyond the end of the tail; the first quill is the longest, the second a trifle shorter; the elongated tertials are nearly equal to the third quill; the outer toe to second joint is connected by a web to half way between first and second joint of the mid-toe; the mid-toe from between first and second joint is connected by a web to the first joint of inner toe ; the hind toe is long, thin, free, considerably raised above the sole. There is a conspicuous groove on each side of bill from the forehead over the nares, almost to the point; the point of the bill is much dilated, not showing reticulations or pittings in the fresh specimen, (though these are very conspicuous in dry ones), but with a deep central groove ; the inner surface of the upper mandible or palate, exhibits a double row of sharp, thorn-like, recurved papillse ; the tongue is long, simple, sharp-pointed and membraneous towards the tip.

The lower wing-coverts are much developed, the greater ones of the hinder secondaries being almost as long as the quills themselves.

There is a conspicuous dark line from the eye to the nostrils ; a broad, not very regular dull white, or brownish white, band above this line, extending backwards, diminished in breadth, as a supercilium ; the chin, cheeks, throat, and front and sides of neck are white, with a brownish tinge, thickly streaked, longitudinally, with little brown lines, short and more or less speck-like about the chin, throat and face, longer, broader, more pronounced, lower down; the few last feathers at the base of the neck, on the sides, and at front, with traces of arrow-head, subterminal brown bars; the feathers at the extreme sides of the breast with these well marked.

The breast, abdomen, sides, flanks, vent, lower tail-coverts, tibial plumes, axillaries, and wing-lining, in some specimens all pure white and unmarked, in others with a few spots, traces of obsolete bars, on some of the feathers of the sides, flanks and lower tail-coverts.

The variation in the amount of barring at the base of the neck, on the extreme sides of the breast and elsewhere, is probably seasonal.

The lesser lower coverts everywhere just inside the edge of the wing, brown centred.

The forehead between the dull white bands, the crown and occiput, moderately dark, slightly sooty brown, with just a trace of paler margins to the feathers.

This also characterizes Psendototanus Mughtoni.

The nape, back of neck, and interscapulary region similar, but the brown somewhat lighter, and the pale brown margins to the feathers more conspicuous ; the scapulars similar, but most of them rather darker ; the lesser wing-coverts generally decidedly darker, with the pale margins obsolete or nearly so, while in the median coverts these are more conspicuous and white or albescent; the winglet and primary greater coverts very dark brown ; the coverts, more especially the hinder ones, tipped white ; the rest of the greater coverts a lighter brown, often greyer, tipped, margined, and more or less imperfectly barred towards the tips with pure white, most conspicuously so on the inner webs; the earliest primaries deep brown, growing less deep as they recede towards the secondaries, which are a rather light, in some birds decidedly grey, brown ; all the quills with much white and white mottling on the inner webs, the amount of which increases as the feathers recede from the outside of the wing; all but the first five or six primaries more or less conspicuously margined, often in a mottled fashion,

on the outer web, and at the tips also, with white; the secondaries more strongly so, and these, and the later primaries, with more or less of a mottled-white shaft-streak.

The rump and upper tail-coverts white, conspicuously barred with black, the terminal bar more or less following the curve of the feather ; the tail feathers white, with regular, rather broad, transverse blackish brown and black bars ; the central feathers always, the next one or two pairs often, and sometimes nearly the whole tail, with an ashy brown shade over the whole terminal portions of the feather, alike over white and black, both of which it obscures and dulls.

As Swinhoe observed, but for the bill, this species closely resembles the Eastern Bar-tailed Godwit, Limosa baueri. Naumann, (novae-zelandiae, Gray; uropygialis, Gould.), but this latter is a larger bird with a wing longer by a full inch and a quarter, and with the bills there is no mistaking this present species, in which the bill widens out towards the point where it is comparatively soft and fleshy, while in the Godwit referred to, it gradually narrows to the point, which is hard, polished and horny.

Swinh., P. Z. S 1863, p. 313; 1871, p. 407; David et Oust. Ois Chine, p. 474, pl. 121; Hume, Str. F. viii. p. 112; Hume and Marsh., Game Birds iii. p. 395. pl.; Oates, Str. F. x. p. 239; id., B. Br. Burm. ii. p. 408; Murray, Avif. Brit. Ind. ii. p. 625, No. 1310. Macroramphus semipalmatus (Jerd.), Blyth, J. A. S. B. xvii. p. 252; Jerd., B. Ind. iii. p. 679, No. 874 ; Hume, Str. F. vii. p. 484. :-

The Snipe-billed Godwit.
 

Forehead, crown, nape, hind neck, sides of the neck, back, scapulars and tertiaries brown, each feather margined with greyish white; lores brown; supercilium white ; sides of the head, chin, throat, foreneck and breast white, densely marked with short brown streaks ; Upper wing coverts dark brown, broadly edged with white; primary coverts, brown; primaries brown, the tips darker, the shafts white and the outer webs narrowly margined with white; secondaries brown, broadly margined with white and irregularly barred with the same; rump, upper tail coverts and tail white, broadly barred with brown; abdomen and vent white; under tail coverts white, marked with V-shaped brown marks ; sides of the body white, irregularly barred with brown; under wing coverts white; axillaries white, with a few irregular short brown bars.

In Summer, according to Messrs. David and Oustalet, the upper plumage is bright rufous with brown streaks on the nape, lores and hind neck, and with large brown spots on the dorsal feathers; lower plumage more uniform rufous, with a little white on the edges of the feathers of the abdomen and some irregular brown streaks on the flanks and under tail coverts; wing coverts, secondaries and tertiaries greyish brown bordered with white; primaries brown with the shafts white; tail brown, transversely banded with white.

Bill black, turning to plumbeous at base; irides dark brown; legs and toes dark plumbeous.

Length. :- 13.5 inches; tail 2.5 to 2.9; wing 6.8 to 7; tarsus 2.05; bill from gape 2.9 to 3.25.

Hab. :- Burmah, where it was procured at Rangoon and in Pegu.

Swinh., P. Z. S. 1863, p. 313; 1871, p. 407; David et Oust. Ois Chine, p. 474, pl. 121; Hume, Str. F. viii. p. 112; Hume and Marsh., Game Birds iii. p. 395. pl.; Oates, Str. F. x. p. 239; id., B. Br. Burm. ii. p. 408. Macroramphus semipalmatus (Jerd.), Blyth, J. A. S. B. xvii. p. 252; Jerd., B. Ind. iii. p. 679, No. 874; Hume, Str. F. vii. p.484. -

The Snipe-billed Godwit.
 

Forehead, crown, nape, hind neck, sides of the neck, back, scapulars and tertiaries brown, each feather margined with greyish white; lores brown ; supercilium white ; sides of the head, chin, throat, foreneck and breast white, densely marked with short brown streaks ; upper wing coverts dark brown, broadly edged with white; primary coverts brown; primaries brown, the tips darker, the shafts white and the outer webs narrowly margined with white; secondaries brown, broadly margined with white and irregularly barred with the same ; rump, upper tail coverts and tail white, broadly barred with brown; abdomen and vent white; under tail coverts white, marked with V-shaped brown marks ; sides of the body white, irregularly barred with brown; under wing coverts white; axillaries white, with a few irregular short brown bars.

In Summer, according to Messrs. David and Oustalet, the upper plumage is bright rufous with brown streaks on the nape, lores and hind neck, and with large brown spots on the dorsal feathers; lower plumage more uniform rufous, with a little white on the edges of the feathers of the abdomen and some irregular brown streaks on the flanks and under tail coverts; wing coverts, secondaries and tertiaries greyish brown bordered with white; primaries brown with the shafts white; tail brown, transversely banded with white.

Bill black, turning to plumbeous at base; irides dark brown ; legs and toes dark plumbeous.

Length. - 13.5 inches; tail 2.5 to 2.9; wing 6.8 to 7; tarsus 2.03; bill from gape 2.9 to 3.25.

Hab. - Burmah, where it was procured at Rangoon and in Pegu.

The Snipe-billed Godwit.

Macrorhamphus semipalmatus, Jerdon, Blyth, J. A. S. B. xvii, p. 252 (1848) ; id. Cat. p. 271 ; Jerdon, B. I. iii, p. 679 ; Hume, S. F. vii, p. 484. Pseudoscolopax semipalmatus, Blyth, J. A, 8. B. xxviii, p. 280; id. Ibis, 1867, p. 167; Hume, Cat. no. 874; id. is? Marsh. Game B. iii, p. 395, pl. ; Oates, S. F. x, p. 239 ; id. B. B. ii, p. 408. Micropalama tackzanowskia, Verreaux, Rev. et Mag. Zool.. 1860, p. 206, pl. xiv. Macrorhamphus taczanowskii, Sharpe, Cat. B. M. xxiv, p. 400.

Coloration. in winter. Upper plumage brown, with whitish edges to feathers ; broad whitish supercilia ; forehead and lores dark; quills dark brown, mottled with white on inner margin ; inner primaries and all secondaries more or less bordered with white ; rump and upper tail-coverts white, with irregular arrowhead-shaped bars of brown; tail-feathers more regularly barred brown and white ; lower parts white; sides of head, chin, throat, fore neck, and upper breast streaked with brown, sometimes forming wavy bands ; axillaries, flanks, and under tail-coverts irregularly spotted and barred with brown.

In summer the upper parts are described as bright rufous with brown streaks and spots and the lower parts uniform rufous.

Bill black, plumbeous at the base; irides dark brown ; legs and feet dark plumbeous (Oates).

Length 13.25 ; tail 2.5 ; wing 7; tarsus 2 ; bill from gape 2.9 to 3.25.

Distribution. This rare bird breeds somewhere in Siberia, its breeding-haunts being, however, unknown, and a very few individuals have been obtained in Mongolia, China, and Japan. One specimen was procured by Jerdon in Madras, one by Blyth and three by Hume in Calcutta, brought from the neighbourhood, two were shot by Oates at Kyeikpadein in Pegu, and one by Colonel McMaster at Rangoon, all in the cold season. Lately Captain P.

St. Leger Wood (Asian, 22nd Feb. 1895, p. 377) writes that he has killed an individual at Raipur.

Habits, &c. Not known, but the bird is doubtless a feeder on worms or small Crustacea burrowing in mud. So far as is known no Indian specimen, except perhaps Jerdon's, has been obtained on the sea-coast.

The Snipe-billed Godwit.

Male 12 1/2" to 13" ; 4 oz. Female 13" to 13 1/3". Legs green- Bill 2 7/8" to 3 1/4, dusky. —In winter: Ash-brown, edged white. Broad white supercilia. Rump and tipper tail-coverts white, with arrow-shaped marks of brown. Tail barred brown and white. Axillaries, flanks, and under tail-coverts spotted and barred brown. Lower part of tarsus transversely shielded in front.— In summer: Rufous. Wing brown, edged white. Tail banded black and white. Rare visitor to India and Burma. Breeds in Siberia, and migrates to China, Japan, Burma, and India. (J. 874. B. 1458.)

Also M. griseus. Male 10". Female 11". With tarsus shielded behind, wintering in C. and S. America.

Also the genus Micropalama. One species— M. himantopus. male 8". female 8 1/2" With bill widened at tip and pitted. Breeding in Canada and migrating to S. America and W. Indies.

Macrorhamphus semipalmatus.

This very rare bird has exactly the bill of the most typical snipes, overshot, broader at the tip than the middle, and so soft" and full of nerve-endings at the tip that it becomes pitted when drying after death ; it can be distinguished from all true snipe and their painted imitator, however, by having the toes webbed at the base, whereas the toes of snipe are free to the very root.

In this basal webbing of the toes the snipe-billed godwit shows its relationship to the godwits proper, although in these ' the web is less developed, and its plumage is also a godwit's, not a snipe's, being in winter variegated with drab and whitish, without the rich dark tints and creamy head- and back-stripes so usual in snipe, and in summer a bricky red with dark markings on the back. It is nearly of the size of small male specimens of the bar-tailed godwit, being rather over a foot long, and it resembles that bird in the barred colouring of its tail, so that it might easily be confused with it, were it not for the fact that the plumage does not show the distinct dark streaking of the god­wit's upper parts, and that the bill is truly snipe-like and not tapering, but bulging at the end.

Extremely little is known about this bird, which has not been found commonly anywhere; it is supposed to breed in Siberia, and a few specimens have been got in north-east Asia. A few also have been obtained in our Indian Empire in the cold weather, at intervals of many years.

Jerdon seems to have got the first recorded specimen in the Madras Market in 1844; and since then it has been obtained in that of Calcutta by Blyth in 1847, and Hume in 1878; and near this time Oates shot a pair in Lower Pegu. This bird has also been killed in Assam, and is known to occur in China and as far to the south-east as Borneo. But hardly anything is known about it, which is the more to be wondered at, as its only near relative, the so-called red-breasted snipe (Macrorhamphus griseus) of America, is well known to shore-gunners there, and has even strayed to the British Islands. Among other birds of this group only greenshanks and golden plover can be noted.