554 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HLSTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



in 1909 on the 18th September. Oates long ago wrote " The 

 Fantail does not appear" (in Burmah) " until the cold weather 

 is well in, say in December," but I have records now of birds 

 shot in Southern Burmah as early as September 26th. 



In Eastern Assam sportsmen generally try for snipe on the 4th 

 August, and this is the earliest date upon which I know of a 

 Fantail having been killed, but after this there is a long gap and 

 the next earliest was shot on the 26th August. Mr. L. W. 

 Middleton shot a few Fantail in 1909 at Gauhati on the 5th 

 September ; at Chittagong a few are annually shot before the end 

 of August, but all that I have seen shot there in this month were 

 Pintail and the Fantail must be a rara avis before September. In 

 Bengal one hopes for snipe on the 1st September but does not 

 always get them even at as Northern a latitude as Calcutta, and 

 many a hot and weary trudge have I had on the first two or three 

 days of September without a chance of firing a shot. In Southern 

 and Central Bengal there are but few birds in before the middle 

 of the month. 



Reid says that " the Common Snipe begins to make its appear- 

 ance towards the end of September " near Lucknow. Doig records 

 their arrival on the Eastern Narra in September. Maitland notes 

 the first snipe shot at Jacobabad on the 28th August. Mr. A. 

 Hosken shot 4 snipes near Secunderabad on the 26th August and 

 Theobold says that they do not arrive in Southern India until 

 October. 



As one would expect, the further South the birds go on migra- 

 tion the earlier in the hot weather their departure takes place. 

 Thus in Ceylon th.ej leave in early March and in Western India, 

 Travancore and Madras most birds have left by the end of that 

 month though a few stay on well into April, and Hume says that 

 individuals are to be seen " in the North and South of India in May 

 and June." In North-Eastern India I think few birds stay after 

 the middle of April, but a few are shot now and then even in 

 May. In 1882 I shot three Fantails on the Haripal Bheel near 

 Calcutta on the 24th May ; in 1871 Baldwin shot seven and saw 

 many more near the village of Goovsora in Lablatpore on the 2nd 

 May. 



