98 GAME-BIRDS OF INDIA 



under ordinai\y circumstances, the Pintail will also often be found on 

 adjoining dry grass lands and even in jungle. 



Snipe shooting is much the same whether one is after Fautail or 

 Pintail, and in Bengal in nine cases out of ten one covers the same 

 country in pursuit of either or both. 



Hume seems to have had unfortunate experiences in Bengal, for 



he writes : — 



" In one single spot in the Meerut district, on the Boorka Ganga, 

 in the neighliourhood of Hastinapur, to my certain knowledge, over 

 700 couple of Common Snipe were bagged during Decemljer, 1850, by 

 different parties who visited the place .... I have never heard 

 of any one place in Bengal, Burmah or Southern India where any- 

 thing like this bag of Pintail could have been made by any number 

 of guns." 



This statement of Hume's is, of course, very far wide of the 

 mark ; in Bengal there are many such places, in Assam a few, and 

 in Burmah and Orissa others. 



In the Sundarbands of Barisal, Khulna and Jessore there are 

 many wide stretches of mingled hlieel and rice cultivation where a 

 party of seven guns would have to slioot very badly in order to miss 

 getting 700 couple in ten days' shooting. In the famous Kanchra- 

 para jheels in the eighties and nineties, 100 couple of snipe to one 

 gun has often been exceeded in a day's shooting, and this country 

 was so well stocked that it stood shooting day after day. I well 

 remember shooting there once in 1883 with three other guns. We 

 unfortunately missed an overnight train, and in consequence arrived 

 late, so that when we got to our ground we found that the two best 

 beats were already taken. In spite of this, our bag that day was 170 

 couple, whilst the other parties of shooters, who came into the 

 station as we were waiting for our return train back to Nadia, 

 showed sticks as follows : the first party of three guns 180 couple, 

 the next party of two guns something over 100 couple, and a third 

 party of four very bad shots, 48 couple. Here was a bag of some- 

 thing over 500 couple for one day, and I believe one might have 

 gone on shooting at the same rate for many days. 



I do not think it is any exaggeration to say that in the season 

 Kanchrapara must furnish over 1,000 couple of snipe month after 

 month. 



