470 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



Sir, — I beg to inform you that last year I shot a Woodcock, 

 (Scolopax rusticola), 17 miles south-west of Belgaum, when 

 Snipe-shooting in some rice fields about X'mas time. The 

 fields were surrounded by jungle. 



About the same time Colonel W. Peyton stumbled on one. 

 by chance, in a nullah when following up a tiger, and sent me 

 the skin. 



He shot the bird near Jagalbet, in Kanara, on the border of 

 the Belgaum Collectorate. 



He informed me at the time that he had only seen four 

 during a long residence in Kanara (10 — 12 years), but I don't 

 think any one in these parts ever thinks of regularly searching 

 for the birds.* I believe the Woodcock I shot is the only one 

 that has been known to have been shot in the Belgaum District. 



It may interest you to know that the Madras Rufous Wood- 

 pecker (Mkropternus gularis) lives chiefly on the larvas of tree- 

 ants, and in this way its plumage, and especially its tail, being so 

 generally smeared with some sticky stuff, may be accounted for. 



I have frequently seen the birds hammering away at ants' 

 nests, f and have shot them covered with ants. In " Jerdon" it is 

 stated, if I remember rightly, that the gum on their feathers 

 is a vegetable product, but the above is, I believe, the right ex- 

 planation. 



J. S. Laird. 



Note. — This issue should stand as Nos. 3, 4 and 5 ; by an over- 

 sight on the first page it stands as Nos. 3 and 4 only. — Ed. 



* See S. F., V., 140 & 504 ; VI., 458. The fact is that the Woodcock is found as a 

 rare straggler everywhere in India and Burma. Large numbers go south yearly 

 from the Himalayas to spend the winter in the Hills of Southern India and Ceylon, 

 and smaller numbers similarly migrate to the higher hills of the Burmo-Malay 

 countries ; some few here and there drop by the way or are caught at the time of migrat- 

 ing so that there is scarcely a district in the empire from which I have not some 

 record of their occurrence. Even in the most unlikely places of all, Allyghur, Boolund- 

 shur, Agra, Cawnpoor, &c, single specimens have occurred. Dr. Armstrong even 

 caught one in the Bay of Bengal in Lat. 18°, 40', N. and Long. 92°, 28', E.— Ed. 



f In which like their Northern congener, Micropternus phaioceps {vide S. F., IV., 

 511) they probably lay their own eggs.— Ed. 



