GALLINAGO 65 



in the hotter months, during the heat of the day, most birds seek the 

 shelter of some heavy crop, whilst those which stay in the fields of 

 short rice or in similar places get under the shade of the banks which 

 divide the fields or under some specially rank tuft high enough to 

 afford them protection. 



I well remember on one occasion shooting near Calcutta on a very 

 hot day in early September when I was still unversed in the ways of 

 snipe, and accordingly failed to work the proper places when the sun 

 got high up. The walking was delightful, thin paddy and ankle-deep 

 mud and water, and from 7 a.m. up to about 9.30 the firing was con- 

 tinuous with a quickly mounting bag. Then suddenly the birds ceased 

 to rise, and weary tramping from 10 to tiffin time, and again on 

 to nearly 4 p.m., was rewarded with scarce half-a-dozen shots, and 

 these at birds which rose at our feet, generally doubling back at once 

 and affording but difficult shots. After 4 p.m., however, the birds 

 seemed gradually to increase again, and the last hour's shooting 

 added some twenty couple to our sticks. 



Shooting over the same ground by myself a few days later, 

 as soon as it began to get hot, I hunted about for the birds, and 

 eventually found that after 10 a.m. they all retired to jute and other 

 high crops, generally resting near the edges of the field, but often 

 being flushed frona the very centre. Once inside crops of this sort, 

 the birds lie very close, and one can almost stamp on them before 

 they move, and even when forced to fly, they do so in a very lethargic 

 manner and soon re-settle. On one occasion, in the middle of a hot 

 day in September, an orderly of my father's actually caught a snipe 

 in his hand, stooping down and picking it up as we passed along in 

 line. The bird seemed to be uninjured, and flew away well and 

 strongly as soon as released. On another occasion I caught a snipe 

 I had seen settle by throwing my sola topee over it, but was punished 

 for my smartness by an erratic-firing friend who promptly blew to 

 pieces the topee together with its fluttering captive. 



Snipe seem to diiTer curiously in different provinces as to the 

 haunts they prefer. Throughout Bengal one is accustomed to walk 

 them up in the rice fields, and though, of course, they haunt shallow 

 swamps and jheels as well, it is, undoubtedly, in the rice fields that 

 five out of every six snipes are annually shot. In the Sunderbands 



6 



