ASSAM, SYLHET AND CACHAR. 819 



beyond this I know nothing of its distribution in Assam 

 Sylhet or Cachar. 



[Mr. L. G. Ilbert when shooting over a pathar near the Moran 

 Tea Garden in the cold weather, flushed and shot a bird which he 

 said " was of the colour of, but very much larger than, a snipe, and 

 with a heavy flight like a Woodcock's." Although his servant 

 was told to keep it carefully till next day, to send over to me, the 

 fool served it up with some snipe which had been shot at the same 

 time. Another bird was shot in the Tingri Tea Seed Garden 

 near Jaipur. This was described as being " larger than a snipe 

 with a heavy flight too, " but whether they were G. nemoricola 

 or G. solitaria it is impossible to say. — J. R C] 



This species has never I believe been procured in any part 

 of British Burmah, but Davison, who has shot numbers of this 

 species on the Nilgiris, is certain he flushed one once at the 

 extreme south of Teuasserim. 



From both the Garo and Khasi hills and from the Dibrugarh 

 district I have received specimens of 869. — Gallinago solitaria, 

 Hodgs. ; but I did not meet with this in Manipur. I have no 

 further knowledge of its distribution in Assam, Sylhet or 

 Cachar, and it is not known thus far to extend to any part of 

 British Burmah. 



870. — Gallinago sthenura, Kuhl. 



This is the common Snipe of Manipur, and very abundant 

 it is, but owing to the greater part of the basin being equally 

 well suited to their tastes, they are very much scattered about, 

 and you nowhere see any considerable numbers together. 

 You meet with them everywhere, even in all the ditches of the 

 lanes of the capital, but I did not meet with more than three 

 or four spots in which it was possible to kill more than eight or 

 ten couple, and yet I think I never went out one day anywhere 

 in the basin up to the close of March without shooting two or 

 three couple of these birds — not that I ever looked for them 

 or went after them, but that in a day's prowling about a cer- 

 tain number were sure to jump up in front of one, offering 

 shots not to be resisted, and the great majority I killed with 

 " collecting ^' cartridges, half a dram of powder and quarter 

 ounce of dust shot. 



I measured a pair, and may as well record the details :— 



Length, Expanse, Tail, Wing, Tarstis, Bill from gape. Weight. 



S ... 10-5 170 2-5 5-1 1-38 2-23 4-85 ozs. 



? ... 10-55 18-0 2'3 5-13 1-3 2 55 4-63 ,, 



