POEZAXA. 397 



and specially devoted to snipe-shooting, I have only met with it in 

 Jhansie, Saugor, and Eaipore ; in the Sumbulpoor District, I fre- 

 quently searched for it in favourable localities, but without success. 

 In the Eaipore District itself the Eail is very rare ; only on four 

 occasions did I and my men meet with it. I have met with it nearly 

 always singly : on rare occasions in pairs. Its favourite resorts are 

 swamps, the reeds and bushes on the edges of streams, and the 

 tangled amphibious coverts on the borders of watercourses. A 

 favourite place of abode too is the marshy ground occupied by 

 kewrah plants, the branches and broad leaves of which it ascends 

 like Eryilira phcemcum, with wonderful agility. I have always 

 found it a shy bird, seeking at once a place of security on the 

 slightest alarm. Frequently I have witnessed it half emerge from 

 the rushes, either to feed or change its retreat, and then pause, 

 carefully scanning the neighbourhood before venturing onward. 

 When walking, it ever and anon jerks up its short tail. It runs 

 with rapidity, and when once concealed it is very difficult to 

 flush it ; indeed, it would appear rightly to trust far more for safety 

 to its speed of foot and aptitude for concealment than to its powers 

 of flight. 



" Slowly and heavily does it fly, and never to any distance, and 

 with good dogs it may be run down and secured. This Eail has 

 a low short plaintive note, which, however, I have only heard it utter 

 at day dawn and just before sunset. 



" I do not know much about its nidification, for I have taken but 

 few nests. It begins to pair in April, and lays from May to Angust. 

 The first nest I obtained I took at Jhansie on the 7th August, 1868. 

 It was placed just above the bank of a small nullah, on a low- 

 growing wild carounda bush. It was simply a collection of thin 

 twigs and grass put together just like the nest of a Dove, only 

 in size a little larger. The nest was placed about the centre of 

 the bush, about six feet from the ground, between and upheld by 

 numerous slender branches. It contained two fresh eggs, and a 

 third was laid by the female bird, which was much injured unfor- 

 tunately in capturing her, and which died in laying it. 



" On the 27th May and on different dates in June 1869, in the 

 Saugor District, my men secured three nests, with four eggs each, 

 ill the high grass and rushes growing on the islets in the Dhussain 

 Eiver, ten miles west of Saugor. The first nest was discovered by 

 one of the party, who had to return for the stuffers to shoot the 

 parent bird. When, however, some six hours after they came to 

 take the eggs, they found that one egg had hatched off, and that a 

 second young one was freeing itself from the shell. The other two 

 eggs, with the female, were secured. Strange but true, the escaped 

 young bird eluded the pursuit of the men by diving and hiding in 

 the reeds in the water. A week after, the second and third nests, 

 with four eggs each, were similarly found. They were one and all 

 rough constructions, exclusively made of the surrounding grass 

 and rushes on the his^h ground of the islets, piled up loosely to the 

 height of about six inches, with a slight depression in the centre for 



