442 Manual of the Game Birds of India. 



of the Wood-Snipe during the breeding- 

 season we know nothing. 



Mr. Hume tells us that Mandelli's 

 native shikaris took four clutches of the 

 eggs of this species near Darjiling during 

 the latter part of June, and he adds that 

 Mandelli gave him some of these eggs. 

 In the course of writing the Catalogue 

 of the Eggs contained in the Collection 

 of the British Museum, I have carefully 

 gone through all the eggs of the Snipes, 

 and there are certainly no eggs of the 

 Wood-Snipe to be found in the Hume 

 Collection. 



On the other hand, although Mr. Hume 

 omits all mention of the Solitary Snipe 

 from his "Nests and Eggs," and states 

 in the " Game Birds " that he has never 

 seen the eggs of that species, there are, 

 nevertheless, three eggs of the Solitary 

 Snipe in the Hume Collection, one of 

 which is marked *' 869. Gallinago solitaria, 

 Native Sikhim, 18.6.79." These eggs agree 

 exactly with other eggs of the Solitary 

 Snipe from Western China, taken by Mr. 

 A. E. Pratt, and undoubtedly authentic. 



Under these circumstances I am inclined 

 to think that Mandelli's reputed eggs of 

 the Wood-Snipe were afterwards discovered 

 to be the eggs of the Solitary Snipe, possibly 



