The Snipes. 449 



Snipe flushed within a short distance of 

 each other ; but, as a rule, the Wood- 

 Snipe is to be seen only in tiny swamps 

 or morasses, partly or wholly surrounded 

 by thick cover the Solitary Snipe in little 

 swampy places on open grassy hill sides, 

 or along the margins of rocky-bedded, 

 bare-banked streams. 



" The Solitary Snipe has a much higher 

 range in summer, and does not go nearly 

 so far south in winter.* In the Himalayas 

 at all seasons it is at least ten times as 

 numerous as the Wood-Snipe. It is just 

 as commonly met with in twos and threes 

 as singly, whereas (in the hills at any rate) 

 the Wood-Snipe is always solitary. 



"The flight of the Wood-Snipe, and 

 the shape of its bill, are ' wood-cocky,' of 

 the Solitary Snipe, both are 'snipey.' 



" The latter rises, flies, twists, and pitches 

 precisely like a Pintail Snipe, but is some- 

 what less rapid and agile in all its move- 

 movements than this, and a fortiori than 

 the Common Snipe. 



" The Wood-Snipe, so far as my experi- 

 ence goes, rises invariably silently; the 

 Solitary Snipe goes off with a loud ' pwich ' 



* This statement is now y however, hardly 

 accurate. Both species occur in Southern India, 



VOL. II. 29 



