458 Manual of the Game Birds of India. 



this bird points to the fact that it finds its 

 food in the ground not on it. Consequently 

 the Common Snipe is found only where 

 the ground is soft. It will also be found 

 that this Snipe prefers open country and 

 avoids jungle, and it is therefore almost 

 invariably found on large bare marshes 

 or in extensive plains of paddy-fields. 

 When these dry up, the Common Snipe 

 moves to other marshes. A night's rain 

 may bring them back again. 



The Pin-tail is much less dependent on 

 ground and rain-fall. Its bill is much 

 harder and less sensitive, showing that 

 it does not depend so much on touch 

 for finding its food. It is perhaps as 

 fond of soft ground as the Common 

 Snipe ; but when the ground dries up it 

 does not move to any great extent, but is 

 content to take up its quarters in some 

 adjoining grass-land, where it is able to 

 subsist on insects that are found on 

 vegetation or on the surface of the ground. 

 It will be noticed that the Pin-tail wanders 

 about much less than the Common 

 Snipe. 



A Snipe cannot stand in more than 

 two inches of water, nor can it probe for 

 worms in ground which is at all sub- 

 merged. Consequently certain wet fields, 



