GALIilNAGO STENURA 99 



Shooting in Nadia in 1883 when I was stationed in that district, 

 40 to 80 couple was not considered a heavy morning's bag for a 

 couple of guns ; in Hooghly the same, and in some of the rice-fields 

 quite close to the station bags of 75 to 125 couple to two guns were 

 almost a common occurrence. Indeed in any of the good snipe 

 districts of Bengal one does not call anything under 50 couple to one 

 gun a good bag for a whole day's shooting. 



In Orissa, I know of several bags of 100 couple to one gun 

 obtained in places which could have held several guns for several 

 confsecutive days. Thus Mr. H. Cornish, to whom I have already 

 referred, is credited with beating 100 couple twice in a week on the 

 same ground near Cuttack. 



Mr. H. Keily is said to have shot over 100 couple to his own gun 

 in the same district, and in Burmah also over 100 couple has been 

 obtained more than once. Shooting grounds such as these would 

 furnish far more than 700 couple of snipe in a month unless the 

 powder were of a very curious quality. 



In Ceylon the record bag already referred to was that obtained by 

 Captain George Eice on the 16th February, 1893, when 103i couple 

 fell to his gun. Captain Bice in epistold also sends me the records of 

 five other days when he shot over fifty couple of snipe to his own gun, 

 and he adds : — 



"I could often have killed more except on the 16th February, 

 when I shot as long as 1 could see. I am inclined to believe that 

 snipe have diminished in numbers in Ceylon." 



In .some of the big Sylhet swamps bags of over 100 couple of snipe 

 to parties of three or four guns are sometimes made, but there are 

 few grounds which would give four guns 500 couple in twenty days' 

 shooting. 



Cachar and the Assam Valley are even less productive of sport ; 

 in the former bags of fifty couple to a single gun are unusual, and in 

 the latter, though one comes across birds almost in thousands on rare 

 occasions when they are migrating, the shooting is so difficult that 

 big bags are exceptional ; at such times also the birds themselves are 

 on the move, so that where one day the sportsman cannot shoot and 

 load fast enough, the next day he may not be able to scrape together 

 five couple in five times that number of shots. 



