LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 353 



Snipe, as late as 10th April, iu Dinajpur, not a stray one but 

 several iu one nullah, and I flushed a Woodcock here the other 

 day, 14th March : the season for migration having 1 passed these 

 birds must remain in this country for the rains, and certainly 

 in the case of Suipe where they are to be found several together 

 I think they breed here. Has the question ever been mooted ? 



E. Lowis. 

 Chittagong, 

 20th March 1877. 



[I have known the Green Jay (Cissa speciosa) to kill and eat 

 lizards, but never before have had any record of its actually 

 killing a snake. But most of these corvine birds will kill 

 and eat any moderate-sized reptiles and any small mammals, 

 or even fish I believe, that they can seize. 



As to Woodcocks, they certainly breed freely in the Higher 

 Himalayahs ; they do not breed in the Nilghiris, where how- 

 ever they are common in the cold season. Whether they ever 

 breed in the Chittagong or Tippera, or Naga, Garrow or 

 Khasia Hills, I do not know for certain, but I greatly doubt 

 it. 



I should hai'dly consider the season of migration for Wood- 

 cock to close before the 15th April. 



The Pin-tail Snipe may breed in Eastern Bengal and the 

 Burmese countries. I have no certainty of the fact, but I 

 believe it to be the case. 



As for the Common Snipe, it breeds sparingly in the Hima- 

 layahs, as for instance in Cashmere ; but I have never had the 

 slightest reason to believe that this species breeds any where in 

 India, except in these hills. Some birds of this species are very 

 late in leaving us. In North- Western India, I have killed 

 them in the plains as late as nearly, if not quite, I have no notes 

 to refer to at hand, the end of April. — Ed., S. F.J 



Sir, 



Since I addressed* you on the subject of Captain Legge's 

 Ceylon paper, another instance of the capture of Phodilus 

 assimilis, Hume, has come under my notice. 



Mr. Weldon of Dickoya, to whom this new specimen belongs, 

 remarks in epist ; tl This bird was caught by a cooly in a tree 

 in the day time on my estatef and is the second of the kind he 

 has caught here. It was put on a perch in a dark room, but 

 refused to eat, and died after two or three days' confinement." 



* Vide Supra, p. 201.— Ed., S. F. 



