276 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



It may not perhaps haunt forest and brake as does the Woodcock,, 

 but on the other hand it is never found in the short grass and open 

 swamps frequented by the Solitary Snipe. Its favourite haunts 

 seem to be those described above by Major Wilson or, when in the 

 plains, huge fields of dense sungrass, ekra or elephant grass which 

 have in their midst small pools and swamps hidden away by the- 

 rank vegetation. In Maldah and Purnea they were found in tiny 

 pools only a few yards across, which were covered with coarse" 

 weeds and grass so high and dense that they would have been) 

 unworkable except from elephants. 



In flight, as may be seen from the descriptions already given,, 

 it closely resembles the Woodcock and is, perhaps,, even slower.. 

 It pursues the same wavering, bat-like course in its mode of pro- 

 gression, makes the same unlooked-for darts to one side or the' 

 other and finally has the same headlong tumble into cover, giving, 

 one the idea that it has died suddenly and fallen to earth- 

 It is, however, a very shy retiring bird and never, like the Wood- 

 cock, frequents the haunts of men. This shyness and also the un- 

 healthiness of its habitat along the Terai will probably always 

 prevent us learning very much about it. 



Nidification. — There is nothing on record about the nidification 

 of the Wood Snipe at present except in connection with the eggs 

 obtained by Mandelli in Sikkim. Three of these eggs are in the 

 British Museum, but one of them is marked "869 Gallinago 

 solitaria, Native Sikkim, 18-6-79 " and, as Oates remarks, it seems 

 possible that Mandelli's reputed eggs of the Wood Snipe were 

 afterwards discovered to be the eggs of the Solitary Snipe, probably 

 by the identification of a skin. 



At the same time it must be noted that Hume distinctly states 

 that when Mandelli's collectors brought in these eggs they brought 

 in with them the skin of a Wood Snipe. The date and name on the 

 eggs, however, would seem to shew that this skin afterwards proved 

 to be that of a Solitary Snipe. 



My own experience, meagre as it is, as regards their nidification, 

 would appear to confirm Oates' opinion. On the 11th June 1908, 

 one of my Khasia collectors brought in to me a Wood Snipe 

 together with a single egg and some fine tangled grass, which he- 



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