GALLINAGO SOLITAEIA 39 



From the above we find that in the species stenura, megala, and 

 paraguayse both culmen and wing are longer in the female than in 

 the male ; in media and frenata the bill is longer but the wing 

 shorter, but of the latter species there are only four females sexed out 

 of the whole series ; in nigrigenis the bill is longer and the wing the 

 same and finally, in galUnago we have the bill the same and the wing 

 longer in the female. 



My own experiences go to show that both in the case of stenura 

 and galUnago the female, though perhaps a less bulky bird, has wing 

 and bill consistently though but slightly longer than it is in the male. 

 At the same time, I have not had sufficient material to work on, as 

 regards the other species, to enable me to assert that such is always 

 the case with birds of this genus. 



Distribution. — The Solitary Snipe is found throughout Eastern 

 Asia from Japan as far west as the Altai Mountains and as far 

 south as the Himalayas and the Chin Hills, extending further south 

 during the winter into the plains of China and India. 



As soon as the cold weather sets in the Solitary Snipe moves 

 further south and to lower elevations, but it is in no sense migratory 

 in India as the Woodcock is, seldom leaving the foot hills for the 

 plains and only occurring in the latter as a rare straggler. On 

 September 14th, 1879, Mr. A. Guthree obtained a specimen near 

 Benares, and in 1898 Mr. F. W. F. Fletcher and Mr. W. Hamilton 

 shot a bird of this species near Devala in the S.E. Wynaad. 



I have records of its' occurrence in Cachar (W. Cathcart), 

 Sylhet (St. J. Hickman), Dibrugarh, Chittagong Hill Tracts, Chitta- 

 gong, N. Cachar, Khasi, and Garo Hills, and between October and 

 March it undoubtedly occurs regularly in small numbers all along the 

 foot of the Himalayas throughout the Dooars. 



Harington records shooting one in the Bhamo District, December, 

 1909. Venning says that it is not uncommon about Haka in the 

 Chin Hills, and B. C. Clarke records ten Solitary Snipe being shot 

 round about Quetta during the winter of 1912-13, mostly in the 

 gardens round cantonments, and remarks that they had not been 

 recorded at Quetta for forty years. 



The extent to which the Solitary Snipe is migratory has been 

 well worked out. In Japan it would appear that it is resident through- 



