500 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HLSTORY SOCLETY, Vol. XII. 



Sub-Family Scolopacince. 

 (609) ScoLOPAX RUSTicuLA. — The Woodcock. 

 Hume, No. 867 ; Blanford, No. 1482. 



I have obtained nearly a dozen Woodcock in the N. Cachar Hills, 

 but even there they are not common, far less so than in the adjoining 

 Nao-a Hills and Khasia Hills. Mr. St. J. Hickman shot a Woodcock 

 in the plains near Silcoorie ; two were shot by natives in a small bheel 

 just behind the station, I missed one near the rifle butts, and another was 

 shot by a planter, I forget whom, near Silcoorie. 



(610) Gallinago ccelestis — The Common Snipe. 

 Hvme, No. 871 ; Blanford, No. 1484. 



Common. 



(611) G. STENURA — The Pintail Snipe. 

 Hume, No. 810 i Blanford, No. 1485. 



As might be imagined from their breedmg distribation, the first snipe to 

 arrive are the Pintails. The first few of these are in by August the 15th 

 about, where as few Fantail will be shot before the end of September and 

 even then in far less numbers than the Pintail. In comparison with 

 other provinces Assam is a bad place for snipe, and any bag of over 20 

 couple is good for one gun and anything over forty very exceptional. 



As regards their breeding, I am afraid that my notes on the subject 

 must have conveyed rather a wrong impression, for Mr. Blanford 

 writes : — '' Both Mr. Baker and Mr. Hole state that snipes breed 

 regularly in Cachar." I certainly do not think that they do so 

 regidarly, but at the same time I, equally certainly, think that very 

 often an odd couple or two remain in the plains to breed. Mr. Hole 

 sent mo the eggs he collected, and the greater number of these were 

 oo-o-s of the painted snipe, but one clutch of three and one odd egg 

 were without doul>t snipes' eggs, whether ccelest/s or stemira, I cannot 

 say. Of the Pintail snipe I have one authenticated clutch taken 

 behind the butts on the Silchar Military range and one taken by 

 myself in the ditch of the abandoned stockade at Guilang. In this 

 latter case two Pintail snipe wore trapped by some Nagas and a 

 search in the ditch where they had been trapped soon brought a nest 

 and four eggs to light. A hen Pintail with a fully-formed egg in her 

 ovary was shot on the Silchar Rifle Range and dissected by the lato Dr. 

 Evans, then attached to the regiment stationed there. 



