THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 265 



dent throughout the year, perhaps working South during the cold 

 season, but in China it is more truly migratory in its habits, 

 breeding in North-Eastern Siberia and extending well into China 

 in the winter. On the other hand in Turkestan, the Altai and 

 possibly also Tibet the bird is probably only locally migratory to 

 the extent of altering the elevation of its haunts with the varying 

 seasons. 



Mr. H. E. Dresser, who has lately been working at this genus, 

 has very kindly sent me in epistola, the result of his researches in 

 regard to the destribution of this snipe. He writes : — 



" Gallinago solitaria breeds on all the mountain ranges of Asia 

 between about 57° and 27° N. lat., also on the Commander 

 Islands, in Kamchatka, Saghalien, Japan, the Corea, North China, 

 Manchuria, Mongolia, Dauria, the Southern half of the Irkutsk, 

 Government, the Bureja and Stanovoi mountains, Sajan, the Altai 

 Tarbagatai, Alatan, and the mountains of Turkestan at an altitude 

 of from 4,000 to 14,000 feet, also in Tibet and the Himalajras. 

 In the autumn and winter it is found near Irkutsk, Krasuojarsk, 

 Ust Kamenogorsk, on the Irtesh at Askabad and in Eastern 

 Persia where Mr. Zarudny obtained it on the 2nd of October 1898 

 atNeizar in Seistan, on the 19th of October at Tebbess, on the 21st 

 and 22nd of October at Kelata-Marg, on the 23rd of October at 

 Pud-i-Akhangerun, and on the 31st of October at Kerat, all these 

 places being in Seistan. The typical form is found in Turkestan, 

 the Altai, the Altyn-Tag mountains, Zaidan, the Southern Koko- 

 Nor mountains, Nan-shan, Upper Goango, and South-Western 

 Mongolia — the Eastern form (Gallinago solitaria japonica) from 

 the Sayans, East to the Commander Islands, and South to Pekin. 

 Some specimens from Krasno Yarsk on the Yenesei are inter- 

 mediate, whereas others belong to the Eastern form. " 



The Solitary Snipe is by no means a common bird anywhere 

 within our limits, although Hume says that "in the Himalayas 

 at all seasons it is at least ten times as numerous as the Wood 

 Snipe. It is just as commonly met with in twos and threes 

 as singly, whereas (in the hills at any rate) the Wood Snipe 

 is always solitary. " Scully also reported that " the Solitary 

 Snipe is not uncommon in the Valley of Nepal from October 



