320 LIST OF BIRDS IN MANIPUR, 



Male. — Legs and feet pale drab, with the faintest possible 

 greenish tinge ; claws dark brown ; margin of upper mandible 

 and terminal two-fifths of both dark brown ; rest of bill a 

 pale drab brown ; irides deep brown (11-4-81). 



Female. — Legs and feet greenish grey, bluish on joints ; termi- 

 nal two-thirds of bill deep brown; basal one-third pale horny- 

 brown ; irides deep brown (12-3-81). 



This species is universally distributed throughout Assam, 

 Sylhet and Cachar, and equally so throughout British Burmah, 

 though decidedly less here abundant than in Assam. 



[Snipe are common in the Dibrugarh district from September' 

 to April, but very erratic in their movements. When they 

 arrive, the paddy lands are several inches under water, and it 

 is not till after the 15th October that they are to be found 

 in them. Until then they must be looked for among the lines 

 of bushes in the tea gardens, about the high lands on the 

 outskirts of villages, and fields abandoned by ryots and over- 



Irides brown ; bill brown ; base below pale horny brown ; 

 legs greenish grey, tinged dusky at the joints. 



In March and April after a few heavy showers the water 

 lodges in the " pathars," and there is a growth of grass, &c., 

 from six inches to a foot high, and wherever the Snipe find 

 these conditions they are very plentiful, and very good shooting 

 is to be had without much heavy walking, as the ground 

 is not too soft, but in the cold weather the ground they fre- 

 quent is of such a spongy oozy nature that their pursuit is 

 more a pain than a pleasure. — J. R C] 



871 — Gallinago coelestis, Frenzl. 



Occasionally met with about the Manipur basin, to judge 

 from those I killed in about the proportion of one to five Pin- 

 tails. I noted 235 Snipe (I did not note quite all I killed), out 

 of which 40 were Fantails. 



This species also is generally distributed throughout Assam 

 Sylhet and Cachar, but is, I gather, less abundant everywhere 



