The Snipes. 449 



Snipe flushed within a short distance of 

 each other ; but, as a rule, the Wood- 

 Sm|)e is to be seen only in tiny swamps 

 or morasses, partly or wholly surrounded 

 by thick cover — the Solitary Snipe in little 

 swampy places on open grassy hill sides, 

 or along the margins of rocky-bedded, 

 bare-banked streams. 



" The Solitary Snipe has a much higher 

 range in summer, and does not go nearly 

 so far south in winter.* In the Himalayas 

 at all seasons it is at least ten times as 

 numerous as the Wood-Snipe. It is just 

 as commonly met with in twos and threes 

 as singly, whereas (in the hills at any rate) 

 the Wood-Snipe is always solitary. 



"The flight of the Wood-Snipe, and 

 the shape of its bill, are ' wood-cocky,' of 

 the Sohtary Snipe, both are 'snipey.' 



" The latter rises, flies, twists, and pitches 

 precisely like a Pintail Snipe, but is some- 

 what less rapid and agile in all its move- 

 movements than this, and a fortiori than 

 the Common Snipe. 



" The Wood-Snipe, so far as my experi- 

 ence goes, rises invariably silently; the 

 Solitary Snipe goes ofl" with a loud ' pwich ' 



* This statement is now, however, hardly 

 accurate. Both species occur in Southern India, 



VOL. IL 



29 



