552 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SO CIETY, Vol. XX. 



applied to plumage is still in its infancy and it is not easy to lay 

 down the law on the subject with our present scanty knowledge 

 Our piebald snipes and other birds generally have the white plum- 

 age caused by some local injury which completely checks circul- 

 ation of all pigment to the part injured, on the other hand the 

 uniformly pale fawn snipe appear to have lost the power of generat- 

 ing the dark pigments and to have their rufous pigment deficient 

 as well. Sickness in many birds causes loss of brilliance in 

 colouration and in some cases actual loss of colour, heat with 

 humidity increases depth and brilliance and a dry sun combined 

 with open country causes excessive evaporation and consequent 

 bleaching. 



Distribution. — Sharpe, including raddei with coelestis, says that its 

 distribution is Europe generally and Northern Asia up to about 

 latitude 70', migrating south in winter to Senegambia, N.-E. 

 Africa, India, and the Malayan countries, as far as Batchian. It 

 occurs in Greenland but only occasionally in North America, and 

 is accidental in Bermuda. 



Within our limits there is no portion of the Indian Empire from 

 East to West and North to South in which the Common Snipe 

 will not be found provided there is suitable country for it. It is, 

 however, less numerous to the extreme south, and is less common 

 in the north-east than is the Pintail and is rare in Southern 

 Burma but straggles into Malaya, and I have lately received a 

 specimen from Siam whence it had not previously been recorded. 

 Mr. Venning informs me that he has repeatedly obtained it in the 

 Chin Hills. 



Although the Common Snipe has a breeding range which, 

 if one includes Radde's Snipe, extends completely across Asia 

 yet migration into India undoubtedly takes place to a far 

 greater extent from the west than the east and it would appear 

 that Eastern birds do not as a rule penetrate so far south as the 

 Western. A certain number of Fantails do yearty come into 

 India via the great rivers of the East such as the Dihong, Dibong, 

 Brahmaputra and Irrawaddy, but a far greater number come via 

 the Western rivers and passes. 



As a matter of fact it is not at present at all certain whether 





