THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 273 



Calcutta by Blyth, two at Russelkonda by Macmaster, one in 

 Serguja by Bull, and probable occurrences have been recorded at 

 Nasik and Dharwar." 



The Wood Snipe extends all along the Himalayas from the 

 Eastern point mentioned by Blanford, and I have had either 

 records of its occurrence or specimens sent me from the Dooars, 

 Buxa, Jalpaiguri, Barpeta (South of Bhutan) and Tezpur (South 

 of the Dafla Hills), Cachar, Sylhet and Myitkyina (Capt. Clifford), 

 thus linking up its range almost from point to point.* 



As regards these birds'* visits to the Southern Hills these are, no 

 doubt, more or less the result of a migratory movement but as we 

 get to know more about this rare Snipe it will probably be found 

 that its migrations are of a very local character and it would not 

 surprise me to find that over the greater portion of its habitat it is 

 a permanent resident. The dates on which specimens of the Wood 

 Snipe have been obtained, for me, shew that in some cases it is not 

 a bird of high elevations alone and that it almost certainly breeds 

 well below 2,000 feet. 



From Jalpai I have received a bird shot in May in the swamps 

 at the foot of the Hills; my father, E. B. Baker, shot several speci- 

 mens in Purnea and Maldah in April and May whilst returning 

 from Tiger shoots, and Major Wilson records his seeing many of 

 these Snipes in May in Manipur at about 2,000 feet elevation. It 

 is quite possible that if we knew the haunts of this Snipe and if 

 we could visit them at the proper season we should not find them 

 nearly as uncommon as they have been hitherto considered. 



Damant said that he found it common in Manipur and that one 

 morning he killed five shooting in long grass from the back of an 

 elephant. 



Baldwin also came upon a number together when shooting in 

 the Philibet district in January 1872. He Avrites:— " I came across 

 not one, but over a dozen of these birds ; they were close to one 



\ anotner -we soon put up several Common Snipes and 



J presently my companion fired at one, and I then saw a large dark 

 bird, which I thought at the time was a Solitary Snipe, rise up 

 with a croak, and after curving about, drop close by. We went 



* There is in the Society's collection a specimen of a Wood Snipe ^in spirit) shot at 

 Thana, near Bombay, by Ma-. Thos. H. Moore in January, 1896.— Eds. 



