aALTjINArtO TtALLINULA ] 09 



" The Jack Snipe is found over tlie whole peninsula of India from 

 the Himalayas to the extreme south, and also in Ceylon. It has not 

 yet heen obtained in the Andamans and Nicobars, and probably does 

 not occur in these islands. To the east it ranges from Assam to Pegu, 

 and to the latitude of Moulmein, but T cannot discover that it has 

 ever been shot in tlie Shan States. 



" This snipe, in summer, is found in Northern Europe and Asia, 

 up to and within the Arctic Circle, from the Atlantic to tlie Pacific 

 Oceans. In winter it migrates to the British Isles, Central and 

 Southern Europe, Nortliern Africa, Palestine, Persia, India, Burmah 

 and China." 



To this we must now add a few other places. Osmaston records 

 it as having been shot by Captain Turner in 1896 at Port Blair in the 

 Andamans. I have received specimens from the Shan States, and 

 others again from the Federated Malay States. Specimens have also 

 been received by the British Museum from Taiwan (Formosa), 

 Yokohama and Hakodadi. 



It also occurs fairly regularly in Ceylon, where. Wait says : " It is 

 an occasional visitor to the extreme north of the island." 



As Hume says, its distribution in the non-breeding season is very 

 perplexing, and the thirty years which have passed since he wrote 

 this have added very little to our knowledge as to its winter haunts. 

 It breeds, as has already been said, practically right across Northern 

 Asia and Europe, but whilst in winter it is recorded as comparatively 

 common all through Northern Africa and through Asia as far east as 

 Bengal, eastward of this it becomes rare in Burmah, and almost 

 unknown in China. It may be that its alleged extreme rarity in 

 China is partly due to the fact that sportsmen are not scattered 

 throughout the whole length and breadth of that country as they are 

 in India, and so we have not the same number of sporting records. 

 This is not, however, a satisfactory explanation, as there are several 

 European settlements, all with their quota of sportsmen and field 

 naturalists, who would almost certainly have come across and shot 

 Jack Snipe had they been there to shoot. Again, paucity of sports- 

 men and naturalists is no reason for the few records of Jack Snipe 

 obtained from Burmah, and there can be no doubt that east of the 

 Bay of Bengal the Jack Snipe at once becomes very much more 

 uncommon than it is to the immediate west of it. The only record 



