40 GAME-BIRDS OF INDIA 



out the year, perhaps working south during the cold season, but in 

 China it is more truly migratory in its habits, breeding in North- 

 Eastern Siberia and extending well into China in the winter. On 

 the other hand in Turkestan, the Altai and possibly also Tibet, the 

 bird is probably only locally migratory to the extent of altering the 

 elevation of its haunts with the varying seasons. 



The late Mr. H. E. Dresser, who had been working at this genus 

 when my original article was written, very kindly sent me in epistold 

 the result of his researches in regard to the distribution of this snipe. 



" Gallinago solitaria breeds on all the mountain ranges of Asia 

 between 57° and 27° N. lat. ; also on the Commander Islands, in 

 Kamcliatka, Saghalien, .Japan, the Corea, North Cliina, Manchuria, 

 Mongolia, Dauria, the southern half of the Irkutsk Government, the 

 Bureja and Stanovoi Mountains, Sajan, the Altai Tarhagatai, Alatan, 

 and the mountains of Turkestan at an altitude of from 4,000 to 14,000 

 feet, also in Tibet and the Himalayas. In the autumn and winter it 

 is found near Irkutsk, Krasuojarsk, Ust Kamenogorsk, on the Irtish, 

 at Askabad and in Eastern Persia, where Mr. Zarudny obtained it 

 on the 2nd of October, 1898, at Neizar in Seistan, on the 19tb of 

 October at Tebbess, on the 21st and 22nd of October at Kelata-Marg, 

 on tJie 23rd of October at Pud-i-Akhangerun, and on the 31st of 

 October at Kerat, all these places being in Seistan. The typical form 

 is found in Turkestan, the Altai, the Altyne-Tag Mountains, Zaidan, 

 the Southern Koko-Nor Mountains Nan-shan, Upper Goango, and 

 South-Western Mongolia — the Eastern form {Gallinago solitaria 

 japonica) from the Sayans, East to the Commander Islands, and 

 south to Pekin. Some specimens from Krasno Yarsk on the Yenesei 

 are intermediate, whereas others belong to the Eastern form." 



Nidification. — Within the limits of the Indian Empire the Solitary 

 Snipe breeds throughout the Himalayas from Western Kashmir to 

 the extreme east of Assam, both north and south of the Brahmaputra, 

 and thence through the Chin and Shan Hills wherever these are of 

 sufficient elevation. At this season it may be found at all heights 

 between 15,000 feet and 9,000, probably breeding at a rather lower 

 elevation than this, as I shot a specimen in May in N. Cachar at 6,000 

 feet. The testes of this bird were much swollen and it was evidently 

 breeding either in the place where shot or in the adjoining Naga Hills 

 which ran some 2,000 feet higher. 



Hume records : — 



