WESTERN SOLITARY SNIPE 85 



been preserved ; this was shot in October, 1910, near Bangalore, 

 by Captain A. Boxwell, and was a quite young bird ; yet it 

 weighed seven ounces. It rose without a cry, but with a 

 pronounced flutter of the wings, from a patch of mud at the 

 edge of a rice-field. It was not, however, the first specimen 

 recorded, for another, an adult weighing over eight ounces, had 

 been shot in September, 1899, near Madras, by Captain Donovan, 

 who thought he had got the species, but lost the specimen 

 through sending it to the Madras Museum for identification, 

 when it went bad and was thrown away, its captor only getting 

 the information that his prize was a " wood-snipe." I suppose, 

 from the frequency with which this bird is brought out when- 

 ever there is a question of big snipe, that any bird of the snipe 

 kind which is big gets put down as a wood-snipe because the 

 name suggests the woodcock, known to be a big bird of the 

 snipe kind ; for of course such mistakes ought never to be made. 

 The moral is obvious ; in doubtful cases save the tail and eat 

 your snipe. The great snipe breeds west of us, in Siberia and 

 the north of Europe, and its usual winter haunts are the 

 countries bordering on the Mediterranean, but it is also found 

 as far east as Persia. Although in the structure of its bill — 

 which is short for its size, not being so long as the fantail's — and 

 its feeding-habits, it resembles the fantail snipe, as it does in 

 its normally shaped tail ; it has a slow, straight, heavy flight. 

 This sluggishness of movement may be the reason why it gets 

 so fat ; the skin often breaks with the fall when the bird is shot. 

 It is very nocturnal in its habits, and seldom moves by day. It 

 is thus possible that it is often overlooked — indeed probable, as 

 our only two recorded occurrences were in the South of India, 

 where one certainly would not have expected it. Perhaps, like 

 so many western birds, it may even breed in the Himalayas. 

 It would be highly interesting if the doable snipe ever does turn 

 out to breed with us, because its breeding habits are unique in 

 the group so far as is known. The birds appear to have no 

 love-flights, but to carry out their courting exercises and vocal 

 accompaniments on the ground ; this alone would be remark- 

 able enough, but in addition they are social at this period, and 

 hold tournaments after the manner of black-game and several 



