The Snipes. 489 



North-western and Northern India, but 

 elsewhere it seems to be a permanent resi- 

 dent, moving about a good deal, of course, 

 in search of suitable feeding-grounds. 



In the eastern part of the Empire the 

 Painted Snipe is very unequally distributed. 

 Major G. Rippon, referring to Upper 

 Burma, informs me that he considers it 

 more abundant there than in India, but 

 in Lower Burma it is far from common, 

 and south of Moulmein it appears to 

 be extremely rare. It ranges far away 

 to the east, however, for Lieut. J. H. 

 Whitehead informs me that he has obtained 

 this bird at Kengtung. 



The present species is found over a large 

 portion of Africa and in Madagascar. It 

 has been observed in Asia Minor and 

 Afghanistan. Thence it extends, through 

 India and Burma, to China and Japan, 

 the Malay peninsula and the Malayan 

 islands, as far as the Philippine group. 



The Painted Snipe is generally found 

 on marshy ground, which is covered with 

 abundance of grass or other low cover, 

 and it will seldom be seen on bare land. 

 The bill of this Snipe is not sensitive, 

 and is moreover curved, so that it is not 

 able to probe the soil for worms as 

 ordinary Snipes do. Its food, therefore, 



