More about Wildfowl 97 



About woodcock and snipe I shall say little. 

 The former are very rare in Seistan, but in Kain 

 and the northern part of Khorassan they are 

 not uncommonly found in gardens in winter. In 

 a swampy little hollow below a hill pass in Kain, 

 I once shot a woodcock, a solitary snipe, and 

 a jack-snipe within thirty yards of each other. 

 Common and jack snipe are found everywhere in 

 Eastern Persia where there are bits of marshy 

 ground. Between Seistan and the northern parts 

 of Khorassan, however, such spots are very un- 

 common. In Seistan there are quantities of snipe, 

 but scattered, and as elsewhere it is a case of 

 here to-day, gone to-morrow. During the winter, 

 by working hard, one can pick up a few on 

 almost every bit of likely bog where short reeds 

 and grass grow, and even among the heavy reed 

 beds of the " Naizar, 1 ' but big bags are rare. The 

 most likely bits are those from which the water 

 has lately retreated. My best bag was made 

 on a wild windy day along the bed of a wind- 

 ing natural overflow channel. Clumps of reeds 

 and sedge and alternate expanses of ooze beds 

 and open water made it an ideal ground to look 

 at, and we found it as good as it looked. The 

 other gun and I each took a side. Snipe got up 

 at every step, not too wild but just wild enough, 

 single birds and whisps. It was too good to last. 



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