GALLINAGO SOLITAHIA 43 



developed. Each clutch contained four eggs and was taken on the 

 Siuglo ridge above Darjeehng at an elevation of 10,000 feet or more. 

 Daring the breeding season the Solitary Snipe bleats or drums in 

 much the same manner as does the Fantail. Hume observes : — 



" In May . . . tlio males arc often to be soon and heard in the 

 higher portion of tiie iiills soaring to a consideralilo height, repeatedly 

 uttering a loud, sharp, jerky call, and tiien descending rapidly with 

 quivering wings and out-spread tail, producing a iiarsh Inizzing sound 

 something like, but shriller and louder than, that produced by the 

 Common Snipe, and this though they do not descend as rapidly as 

 this latter." 



General Habits. — The Solitary Snipe is by no means a common 

 bird anywhere within our limits, although Hume says that " in the 

 Himalayas at all seasons it is at least ten times as numerous as the 

 Wood Snipe. It is just as commonly met with in twos and threes as 

 singly, whereas (in the hills at any rate) the Wood Snipe is always 

 solitary." Scully also reported that " the Solitary Snipe is not 

 uncommon in the Valley of Nepal from October to the beginning of 

 March, being represented in larger numbers than either the Woodcock 

 or Wood Snipe." As, however, Scully also says that the Woodcock 

 " is not at all common in the Valley and can only be obtained by hard 

 work," we need not infer that the Solitary Snipe occurs in any great 

 numbers. 



This bird is in all its ways far more a true snipe than is the Wood 

 Snipe, and in flight and voice is very similar to the Fantail and Pintail. 

 On the wing it is strong and quick and it indulges in the same twists 

 and turns as does the Pintail, rising with the same loud " pench " as 

 does that bird, though its voice is shriller and louder, and its flight, 

 perhaps, not so quick. 



Hume says : — 



"They do not seem to care much for cover. I have constantly 

 seen them along the margins of little streams, in bare rocky ravines 

 and valleys, where there wore only small corners and nooks of turf and 

 mossy swamp, and no cover a foot high. I have, no doubt, found 

 them in small open swamps in the middle of jungle, but they stick to 

 the grass and low rushes, and I never observed them in scrub or ringal 

 jungle. I have known Wood Snipe and the Eastern Solitary Snipe 

 flushed within a short distance of each other ; but, as a rule, the Wood 



