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



The breeding range of this snipe is given by Buturlin as 

 follows : — 



" Breeds in Eastern Siberia, east to Kamaskatka, and even 

 the Commander Isles, and west to the Boganida Taimyr and 

 Krasnoyarste." 



Theoretically, therefore, this snipe should migrate in winter to 

 the whole of Southern China and should visit Burmah and Eastern 

 India in considerable numbers. As a matter of fact, however, typi- 

 cal specimens are not common, even in the east of India, though on 

 the other hand, it may be found occasionally as far west as Bombay. 

 Of the series of Fantail Snipe in the Asiatic Museum, there are but 

 three specimens which can, withoiit doubt, be allotted to this sub- 

 species, and of these three one- — strange to say — comes from 

 Abyssinia. In Eastern Bengal, Assam and Burmah we shall find a 

 very large proportion of birds more or less approach this race in the 

 colouration of their axillaries and underwing coverts and to a less 

 extent also in that of their upper plumage, but really typical 

 specimens will be few and far between. 



My own experience, gained from a close examination of my own 

 bags and those of other sportsmen whenever possible, has been 

 productive of some half dozen specimens one could really call typi- 

 cal. In some of these the axillaries were entirely pure white and 

 the barring of the lower wing coverts absent except on the terminal 

 thirds of the greater coverts and the shoulder of the wing. 



I have a clutch of four eggs of this snipe in my collection, given 

 me by Mr. H. E. Dresser, who secured them from Dr. Buturlin. 

 As might be expected, they are not distinguishable from those of 

 the Common Snipe, though they are duller coloured than most 

 eggs of that bird. 



The ground colour is dull olive — stone colour, in one egg — rather 

 more brown than in the other three, and the markings consist of 

 large and small blotches and spots of different shades of vandyke 

 brown, all dark and many almost black. Underlying there are 

 others of purple grey and washed-out brown. At the larger end, 

 where the blotches are very numerous, they run into and overlap 

 one another ; elsewhere they are smaller and sparsely scattered. 

 In one egg there is a long twisted line of dark brown, about 1^" in 



