PAINTED SNIPE 95 



the hills, so long as cover and water are available. Muddy 

 ground with plenty of shelter suits it especially, but it does not 

 frequent paddy-fields much. In some places it appears decidedly 

 sociable, and flocks of up to twenty birds may be met with. 



In the breeding-season it would appear, from information 

 given to Mr. Stuart Baker by Cachari shikaries, that the hens 

 (which they mistake for cocks) fight vigorously for their mates, 

 just as hen hemipodes do; and there seems to be now no doubt 

 that the cock painter does the sitting and rearing. Several of 

 this sex have been caught on the nests, but never their ladies, 

 who, gay in more senses than one, are suspected of roving off in 

 search of a fresh liaison when they have got one husband 

 comfortably settled on a quadruplet of eggs. The eggs are not 

 generally so peg-top-shaped as true snipe's eggs, and are often 

 of the usual oval, while they usually vary between the two 

 types, with an inclination to the former. They are very hand- 

 somely coloured, the ground being of a huffy yellow, shaded with 

 green or grey or some other tint, and the spots are large and 

 nearly black, with a few markings of pale brown as well. 



The nest is better constructed than that of the true snipes, 

 at any rate in many cases; it is made of grass, weeds, &c., and 

 is sometimes quite hollowed out if in a natural hollow. It is 

 occasionally placed, not on the actual ground, but on thick grass 

 or other marsh vegetation a little above it, and though generally 

 well concealed, is by no means always so. This is one of the birds 

 whose breeding arrangements evidently depend entirely on the 

 food-supply ; it may be found nesting all the year round in some 

 part of its range, and is even suspected of breeding twice a year 

 when its lines are cast in particularly pleasant places. This is 

 not surprising, when we consider its free-and-easy matrimonial 

 ideas, which relieve the female of all work in rearing, and its 

 omnivorous nature, which admits of its feeding freely on paddy 

 and other seeds, and paddy leaves, as well as on insects, snails, 

 and worms ; for which, by the way, it does not bore, at any rate 

 in captivity. 



It seems to be a nocturnal bird, but Mr. Stuart Baker has 

 found it feeding in open ploughed fields by day except during 

 the hot hours ; but this was at a time when tiny crickets were 



