THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 11 



tional for Indian birds this is only because it is also the exception to 

 shoot any but young birds in the plains and Lower Hills of India, 

 whilst even in the higher Hills of Southern India mature birds seem 

 to be but seldom shot. 



Dr. W. Moore writes to me anent the weight of his Woodcock as 

 follows : — " The first two I shot, both on the same day, weighed 14f 

 ounces each, and though I shot no heavier birds than these afterwards 

 some ran them very close, and of 18 I weighed none were under 12 

 ounces except one and that was obviously a bird in very poor condition. 

 I found Woodcock in Dibrugarh on the burnt chapries (grass lands) 

 •ear damp forest, feeding on the parched and crippled insects brought 

 to earth by the recent fires." 



Distribution. — Outside our Indian limits Seebohm thus describes 

 .the habitat of the Woodcock. " Our Woodcock is a semiarctic 

 bird ranging from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In Scandanavia 

 it breeds up to latitude 67, in West Russia to 65, but in East Russia 

 and fSiberia not much above 60. Its Southern breeding range ex- 

 tends to the Azores, Canaries, Madeira, the Alps, Carpathians and 

 Caucasus, to the Himalayas (where it breeds at an elevation of 10,000 

 feet) and to Mongolia and the mountains of Japan. It has not oc- 

 curred in Iceland or in Greenland, and once only in the Faroes ; 

 but accidental stragglers, no doubt driven Westward by storms, 

 principally from the Azores, have been met with on the American 

 Continent, in Newfoundland, New Jersey and Virginia. 



Within Indian limits the Woodcock is a resident throughout the 

 Himalayas where it breeds freely above 10,000 feet, and often at 

 even lower elevations. Thence in the cold weather it migrates in 

 considerable number to every portion of the Indian Empire where 

 there are suitable hills and mountains. It has been frequently shot 

 in Ceylon and in the Burmese Hills as far south as Tennasserim, it 

 is found in all the Hill ranges of Southern India and is common in 

 the Sub-Himalayan Ranges during the winter months. As might be 

 expected, where the country is adapted to sportsmen and shooting is 

 more or less easy the Woodcock is said to be more common than 

 elsewhere. Thus in the Nilgiris, about Ooty, it is quite common 

 though it is reported to be far less so in the Assamboo Hills and to 

 be comparatively rare in the Palnis, Shevaroys, &c. That is to 

 say where the sportsman can get at the birds in comfort, he goes 



