EASTERN SOLITARY SNIPE 83 



Eastern Solitary Snipe. 



Gallinago solitaria. 



There has been a good deal of confusioa in the past 

 between this bird and the wood-snipe, which is curious, because, 

 although both snipe, and both big ones, they seem to lay them- 

 selves out, as it were, to be as different as possible from each 

 other. The wood-snipe is as near a woodcock as it can be 

 without actually being one ; the solitary snipe is an intensified 

 snipe in every way. It is the lightest in colour of all our 

 snipes, as the wood-snipe is the darkest ; it is a typical snipe 

 in its flight, though naturally not so active as the ordinary 

 birds, since it is a foot or more long, and weighs from five to 

 eight ounces, as much as many woodcock we get here. Its 

 shape is not in the least woodcocky, and its call is an aggra- 

 vated snipe-call, " a harsh screeching" imitation of the note of 

 the common snipe, says Hume, who notes that this bird goes 

 off calling, while the wood-snipe is usually silent. In the hand 

 the pure white belly of this bird, so different from the barred 

 under-surface of the wood-snipe, is at once noticeable ; its general 

 appearance is that of the pintail rather than the fantail snipe, 

 and it has several pairs of narrowed feathers in the tail, about 

 the only point, apart from size, it has in common with the wood- 

 snipe ; although even here the colour of the feathers, white with 

 dark bars, is quite different. 



The solitary snipe is, it is true, a Himalayan bird like the 

 wood-snipe, but it rarely penetrates into other parts of India, 

 though it has been got as far away as Benares and the Wynaad, 

 and is a regular breeder in the Chin and Shan Hills as well as in 

 the Himalayas. In the winter it comes lower down, but very 

 seldom strays from the bases of the hills. In summer it ranges 

 up to 15,000 feet, and outside our limits breeds on mountain 

 ranges in Central and Eastern Asia, and migrates south as far 

 as Persia and Pekin. In spite of its title of solitary, it is not so 

 much so as the wood-snipe, which is always alone, but may be 

 found near one or two more of its kind as well as singly. It is 

 nowhere numerous, though Hume estimates its numbers as at 

 least ten times those of the wood-snipe ; but it must be remem- 



