THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 277 



said had composed the nest and which was clogged and matted 

 with the contents of other eggs which had been broken by the 

 trapped bird. Unfortunately the egg, which was saved, is un- 

 doubtedly an abnormally small one, and my collector informed me 

 that when he set the nooses for the bird he saw that there were 

 three big and one much smaller egg, but that in colouration they 

 were all alike. 



The single egg measures only l*5"xl'04" and is much like 

 many eggs I have seen of Gallinago eoelestis, but is unusually 

 brown in tint. The ground is a pale stone colour and the mark- 

 ings consist of heavy blotchings of vandyke brown with a few 

 underlying ones of grey or lavender. The smaller half of the egg- 

 is but very sparsely marked, but on the larger third the blotches 

 form a deep dark ring, inside which again the markings are 

 numerous but not confluent. 



The texture is fine and smooth with a faint gloss and the shape 

 is the ordinary sub-pyriform shape of most Snipes' eggs. 



Hume, writing of the breeding of this snipe, writes : — "That they 

 breed in the Himalayas between elevations of about seven and ten 

 thousand feet (and perhaps, though I doubt it, considerably higher) 

 is certain. That they begin to lay early too is probable. Hodgson 

 notes that on the 10th March the eggs in the ovary of a female 

 were swelling, and another shot early in April contained a nearly 

 full-sized but unshelled egg. But no European, I believe, has 

 ever yet taken the nest, though Mr. A. Gr. Young writes that he 

 hwivs they do breed in Kulu." 



It is more than probable that we shall eventually find that the 

 Wood Snipe breeds at far lower altitudes than 7,000 feet. My 

 own nest was taken near Shillong at under 4,000 feet, and in 

 Manipur it is almost certain that they breed at but little over 2,000 

 feet, whilst it also seems possible that they are permanent residents 

 at the foot of the Himalayas throughout the Dooars. 



The Plate of the Wood Snipe is excellent, both in colouration 

 and attitude. In many birds the bill has a faint green tinge 

 about the base but normally, I think, the colour is much the same 

 as that shewn, though perhaps not quite so clear and hard as here 

 depicted. 



