THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 553 



in their animal migrations snipe, either Fantail or Pintail, do make 

 use of the great waterways and, personally, I am rather inclined 

 to believe that such is not the case. Were it so we should expect 

 to find snipe on their first arrival most numerous in those swamps 

 and rice fields which are situated close to the exits of the bie; 



o 



rivers from the Hills ; but they are not so found and though I 

 have served some 25 years in the Hills and Plains of Assam my 

 experience goes to prove the contrary. Thus during the seasons 

 of migration snipe are comparatively common in the Khasia Hills 

 wherever there are swamps over 5,000 ft. These hills are situated 

 on the south bank of the Brahmaputra and all these birds 

 must have come straight across the river instead of working along 

 it and thus skirting the hills. In the North Cachar Hills I 

 repeatedly found snipe passing the day on lofty peaks, arriving 

 before daybreak and leaving in the dusk of the evening. Every 

 year in August and in March and April snipe were to be found 

 on the Guilang peak, lying up in the ditch which surrounded the 

 small Fort, this peak being almost 4,000 ft. high. At Hangrum 

 over 6,000 ft., the same thing occurred and once in early August 

 snipe were found absolutely swarming in some scrub jungle on a 

 hill slope just outside the rest-house. The birds were very thin 

 and very tired and so loath to rise that they were easily killed 

 with dust shot and half charges of powder. Again all through the 

 Assam Valley snipe appear to work due north and south and no 

 east and west along the course of the Brahmaputra and it seems 

 probable that in migration snipe and many other waders instead 

 of following the courses of the great rivers work straight across 

 them, from one range to another. 



The Fantail Snipe seldom arrives in India until August has 

 well advanced, and even then it will only be found in the extreme 

 North. By early September it has worked as far South as 

 Central Bengal, Bombay and the North of the Central Provinces, 

 but it is not found in any numbers until the middle of that month 

 and it does not usually appear in Madras and Travancore until the 

 end of September and more often still not until the middle of 

 October. Writing from Coorg, Major J. C. Macrae informs me 

 that the first snipe shot in 1908 was on the 14th September and 



