GALIilNAGO SOLITAEIA 41 



" The breeding season commences in May The nest, such 



as it is, is usually placed on grass or moss, close to some stream, 

 often more or less overhung by some tuft of grass or rushes. It 

 consists at most of a few dead rushes or scraps of dry grass or moss, 

 surrounding or at times lining a little depression in the moss, turf or 

 ground. In one case I was told there was no nest at all, the eggs 

 being laid simply in a circular shallow depression in deep, spongy 

 club moss, apparently merely hollowed by the pressure of the bird's 

 body. 



" I have never myself seen a nest, but have this information from 

 natives who have repeatedly seen the eggs, always at places high up 

 on snow-capped ranges and on snow-fed streams. 



" I have never succeeded in securing or even getting a sight of the 

 eggs, though on one occasion several (subsequently unfortunately 

 destroyed) were collected for me in Kashmir)." 



Gates has shown in his ' Game-Birds,' p. 44'2, that the eggs 

 Mandelli obtained from Sikkini and believed to be those of the Wood 

 Snipe, were almost certainly of this species. As regards these eggs, 

 Herr Otto MoUer gave Hame the following details : — 



" The eggs were found in native Sikkim, just opposite Darjeeling. 

 Mandelli several times pointed out to me the spur where they were 

 found, the elevation of which is, I should say, between 8 to 9,000 feet. 

 The eggs, eleven in number, were procured during the latter part of 

 June . . . but the eggs, though clearly all belonging to the 

 same species, equally clearly belonged to four different nests, and 

 the men could not point out the clutch to which the skin belonged." 



Hume describes these eggs as being broad ovals of a regular 

 peg-top shape with stout compact shells, very faintly glossed. He 

 adds : — 



" The ground is a pale pinky stone colour of varying shades, some- 

 times almost white, sometimes browner, sometimes more decidedly 

 pink, densely and boldly blotched (the blotches often longitudinal 

 in their character and radiating in curved lines from the brown 

 apex) with a rich, at times brownish, maroon, almost black in 

 some spots, browner in some eggs, redder in others, this blotching 

 being generally intermingled with very similarly shaped, sub-surface- 

 looking pale grey or inky purple patches or clouds." 



" In some eggs the markings are almost entirely confined to the 

 upper one-third of the eggs, where they are in places all but con- 

 fluent. In others the markings, though in such cases often less 

 densely set, extend over the entire upper half of the egg ; but as a rule 



