Sporting Notes in the Far East. 211 



STRAITS SETTLEMENTS. 



PENANG. 



These observations are collected from the notes kindly supplied 

 to me by an officer in the sister service, who was for two years 

 quartered at Penang. 



I gather from him that it is difficult to imagine a district where 

 the " Scolapax Vulgaris" is more plentiful or more accessible, than 

 in the neighbourhood of Pulo-Penang, or Province Wellesley, at 

 certain seasons of the year. 



They appear with singular regularity about the first week in 

 August, simultaneously with the heavy monsoon rains ; and vanish 

 in the same mysterious way, at the setting in of the dry season 

 early in January. 



As to their numbers, suffice it is to say, that after an absence of 

 nearly seven months, a resident suddenly becomes aware that the 

 snipe are <; in," and day after day they keep on arriving in increas- 

 ing quantities, till the whole country swarms with them : they are 

 mostly of the common full snipe species ; and are not half so wild 

 as the birds of more temperate climates. 



