SPORT IN WESTERN CHINA 131 



including Lotus and other ponds where the Rush and False Rice 

 {Zizania) are cultivated. The flight is low, similar to that of 

 a Woodcock, affording easy shooting. Painted-snipe measure 

 about 10 inches, and though very beautiful are of inferior 

 flavour, and not worth shooting for the table. 



SNIPES 



Central and Western China has little to offer in the way of 

 good snipe-shooting, and the phenomenal bags annually made 

 in the Yangtsze Valley from Shasi eastward are not obtainable 

 farther west. The high barrier mountains (Tsing-ling and 

 Kiutiao ranges) running eastward from the Thibetan frontier 

 and disappearing about long. 112° 30' E. have probably more 

 to do with this than anything else, the migratory flight of 

 the main body of the birds being east of these ranges. In 

 Szechuan there is plent}'^ of good snipe-ground but very few 

 birds. Snipe are not partial to the red sandstone soil, which 

 predominates in Szechuan, presumably because it does not 

 afford the best feeding ground. But most of the rice belt 

 in this province has been so long under cultivation that the 

 soil has been changed to black mud. Particularly true is this 

 of the Chengtu Plain, which I have been told Snipe never fre- 

 quent. This is not correct. Snipe can occasionally be pur- 

 chased during the season in Chengtu city. I have shot them in 

 several places on the Chengtu Plain, and in one instance found 

 the birds fairly common around Mei Chou. I have also shot 

 them around Kiating Fu and Hungya Hsien. In a marsh 

 around the base of Wa shan during November 1904 I enjoyed 

 some excellent snipe-shooting. These few facts show that 

 Snipe are scattered over western Szechuan generally though 

 sparingly. 



Around Ichang quite a number of Snipe are shot annually, 

 but the advent of the railway has destroyed the best groimd. 

 This strip of country, only some 2 miles long, was very dear 

 to the heart of every foreigner interested in shooting who 

 sojourned in Ichang. Now this much-loved spot is given over 

 to railway-sidings, workshops, etc., and no longer affords any 

 sport to the would-be shooting man. 



