THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 583 



are nothing but very large specimens of the ordinary Pintail. I 

 can see no single point about them beyond their unusual size by 

 which one can discriminate them, though, as already observed, 

 these very large birds seldom, if ever, have more than 22 feathers 

 in their tails. This difference in size is perhaps even more notice- 

 able in bulk than it is in wing and bill measurements. It must 

 also be noted that Mr. Val Weston has remarked that the colour of 

 these birds' legs is a far clearer brighter yellow than is the case 

 with ordinary Pintail. 



Distribution. — There is not much to add to Blanford's note on 

 the distribution of this species. He writes : — " The Pintail Snipe 

 breeds, as far as is known, in Eastern Siberia as far West as the 

 Yenesei Valley and migrates in winter to South-E astern Asia and 

 the Malaya Archipelago. It is very rare in the Punjab, Sind and 

 the North- Western Provinces, Rajputana and Gujrat; but 

 increases in numbers to the Southward and Eastward and is found 

 throughout the Peninsula in winter, predominating in Mysore 

 and Southern India, whilst in the highland of Deccan, in Bombay 

 and the Central Provinces and even somewhat further South the 

 common snipe is more abundant and, whilst in Orissa and Bengal 

 the two species are on the whole equally distributed everywhere, 

 further East, in Assam, Sylhet, Cachar and throughout Burma. 

 G. stenura is the snipe of the country." 



It must be remembered that Blanford gives the Indian distribu- 

 tion in its widest sense. Throughout the Eastern portion of its 

 Indian range the number of Pintail compared with Fantail varies 

 very greatly in accordance with seasons, and sportsmen have to be 

 very careful how they form their opinions on this subject. 



The Pintail, without doubt, enters India via the Eastern 

 Himalayas, comparatively few coming through them even as far 

 West as Nepal. The Fantail, on the other hand, though migrat- 

 ing principally from the West, comes also in some numbers over 

 and through the Eastern Ranges. But the Fantail arrives later 

 than the Pintail so that to the East the Pintail predominates 

 enormously during the early and late periods of its stay in India, 

 that is to say, just after and just prior to its migration. 



In this way a sportsman, who shoots in Cachar in September, 



