448 Maiiual of the Game Birds of India. 



from October to the beginning of M^rch, 

 being represented in larger numbers than 

 either the Woodcock or Wood Snipe. It 

 is found at the foot of the hills all round 

 the valley, on sloping grass-covered ground, 

 in the nullah? or small streamlets running 

 down from the hills. It is as often found 

 in pairs as singly, and does not seem ever 

 to seek the shelter of bushes or forests. 

 Its flight is slower and heavier than that 

 of either the Pintail or Common Snipe." 



Except the above, little has been written 

 about the habits of the Solitary Snipe, 

 since the issue of Messrs. Hume and 

 Marshall's "Game Birds." I therefore 

 shall quote largely from this excellent 

 work. Mr. Hume, relating his experi- 

 ences, writes : — " They do not seem to 

 care much for cover. I have constantly 

 seen them along the margins of little 

 streams, in bare rocky ravines and 

 valleys, where there were only small 

 corners and nooks of turf and mossy 

 swamp, and no cover a foot high. I 

 have no doubt found them in small 

 open swamps in the middle of jungle, 

 but they stick to the grass and low 

 rushes, and I never myself observed them 

 in scrub or ringal jungle. I have know^n 

 Wood-Snipe and the Eastern Solitary 



